MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Starting in July, students in the Jubilee Catholic Network in Memphis will move to a year-round calender. The school system will be the first in the city to move to a year-round calendar.
David Hill, president of Jubilee Catholic Schools, says instead of 180 days in the school year, students will go to school 200 days.
Lytia Reese, principal at St. Augustine School, supports the idea. She said she believes students are more focused when they have shorter breaks.
“As we’ve examined the data and looked at our school progress, we’ve noticed that over the summer, they lose some of the gains that they had between August when they started and May when they ended,” she said.
Hill says most schools support moving to the year-round calendar, but principals have until Friday to decide if they want to participate.
“The majority of our schools have said that they’re in that they’re excited about it, I have not heard any negative feedback or any plans to not join the model,” he said.
Hill said the principals at all nine schools in the network are having conversations with teachers and parents about the longer school year, but he’s hopeful all the schools will want to participate.
Hill added this is a topic they started talking about in the fall. There will also be significant raises for those teachers who choose to participate.