© 2024 Interlochen
CLASSICAL IPR | 88.7 FM Interlochen | 94.7 FM Traverse City | 88.5 FM Mackinaw City IPR NEWS | 91.5 FM Traverse City | 90.1 FM Harbor Springs/Petoskey | 89.7 FM Manistee/Ludington
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Coverage from across Michigan and the state Capitol with the Michigan Public Radio Network and Interlochen Public Radio.

Northern Michigan School District Could Switch To Year-Round Calendar

Baldwin Community Schools

Summer vacation would be cut in half for students in Baldwin under a proposal for year-round school. Other breaks would be longer, however, amounting to the same number of school days in a year.

Baldwin Community Schools could make the switch next fall.

Superintendent Stiles Simmons says kids forget too much over the summer, especially math.

“That’s what we found here in Baldwin,” he says. “Our students are losing well over a month of knowledge and skills in the area of math due to the summer vacation.”

Simmons says all the feedback he has received from the community has been positive.

“This is not rocket science,” he says. “We’ve had the research ever since the 60s or 1970s but we’ve been slow to bring about any meaningful change, especially on a large scale.”

Simmons says Baldwin will need more than $700,000 dollars from the state to install air conditioning. Lawmakers set aside $2 million dollars this year to help a few schools switch to a year-round calendar.

The school district plans to submit a proposal to the state next week. Under the plan, Baldwin’s summer break would be six weeks instead of twelve.

Peter Payette is the Executive Director of Interlochen Public Radio.