School in La Crosse could go to year-round schedule

No more summers off

Lincoln Middle School is toying with the idea of a year-round class schedule.

The La Crosse school district is researching the possibility, while a survey was distributed in February to ask for parents’ opinions.

“On the one hand, we found that there are a lot of parents that would love to have their child on a year-round calendar,” Superintendent Randy Nelson said. “There is enough interest to continue to pursue that.

“On the other hand, we’re also finding out from parents, ‘Don’t do this to us. It’s going to be too difficult on our families and our calendars at the same time.'”

Nelson says it is very early in the process, and a final decision wouldn’t be made until 2019 at the earliest.

How it works is school would be in session for 45 days, then off for 15, until the days are equal to the rest of the district.

Lincoln principal Melissa Murray says the school year would likely start in July and talked about the benefits of school without summers off.

“The transitions in between – the intersessions – are much more easy and fluid and kids are back into the swing of school,” Murray said. “You don’t spend a month re-cooping things from the year before. You spend a week or maybe a couple weeks.”

Murray says they hope they can provide choices for parents even within the school year on whether they want their child enrolled in year-round curriculum or not. 

Both she and Nelson stressed the earliest possible date to make the change would be 2019.