Health & Fitness
Lake Orion Schools Superintendent Clarifies Idea for Year-Round School
Lake Orion Schools Superintendent Marion Ginopolis launches a task force to create new ideas for students to learn outside of school and outside of the traditional calendar.
Lake Orion Schools Superintendent Marion Ginopolis generated a lot of buzz when she announced the district would look into a year-round program. But in an interview with Patch, she clarified that this does not mean the school system will necessarily change its calendar.
The district already has a year-round school. Carpenter Elementary School on Flintridge Street has a calendar that provides students with a shorter summer break and breaks throughout the school year. Ginopolis described this as 45 days on and then 15 days off.
Her idea for the district, she said, is to provide learning opportunities for students that extend past the traditional calendar and four walls.
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“It’s really a vision I’ve had for a number of years that is driven by the two questions I have: Does learning have to be driven by a calendar, and does learning have to take place within four walls?”
Some of the ideas she wants to explore are providing online learning opportunities for students, offering high school or middle school courses for children when they are not traditionally in school and allowing students to use activities outside of school for credit.
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“This has nothing to do with the calendar,” she emphasized. “Learning all year long doesn’t mean school year round.”
To explore new programs, she has created a Year Round Task Force that includes 115 parents and community members. They will meet for the first time at 6:30 p.m. June 29 at on East Scripps Road.
One of the obvious questions is whether the district can afford new programs. Like most school districts in the state, Lake Orion Schools has made many cutbacks to meet its budget for the new school year.
In response, she said the task force should decide what’s best for students first and consider costs later. Programs could be phased-in over a period of time or the district could seek new funding sources, she said. In addition, other areas could be reduced or eliminated to make room for new programs.
Ginopolis outlined her ideas in a blog on the school district’s website.
