KHS going year-round has been a topic of discussion for a while.

Year-round schooling has recently been a sore subject for students because of its growth in popularity.

Junior Desirah Richards believes year-round schooling would benefit students.

“I would prefer year-round schooling,” Richards said. “I think more frequent breaks and shorter summers would help students.”

Davison recently transitioned to year-round schooling. This means year-round students occasionally get more breaks compared to students who are in traditional schooling.  

Megan Duncan, a sophomore at Davison, has enjoyed year-round schooling so far. She’s enjoyed the few breaks they’ve had.

“Even though we might start early, we still get the breaks in the school year that are needed,” Duncan said, “and we don’t forget as much over the summer.”

Davison began its school year on Aug. 22, three weeks before KHS began its school year. 

Davison’s breaks are as follows: Oct. 24-27, Dec. 23, 2016-Jan. 2, 2017, Feb. 20-23,  April 3-7, May 22-25, and an eight-week break throughout the summer.

Duncan also has seen a positive impact on her performance in school.

“I think it’s helping my performance because I have a lot more motivation to do all my work,” Duncan said. “I remember a ton more from last year than I normally do.”

Being able to remember the information from the past school year could be beneficial to students and teachers by spending less time reviewing and more time learning new material.

Freshman Jaydin Wistrand enjoys being a part of traditional schooling.

“I would prefer traditional schooling because of summer break,” Wistrand said.

But Wistrand can see the benefits of a year-round calendar.

“Because I would be in school more often, it might help,” Wistrand said.

Even though there are many advantages to a balanced school calendar when it comes to academics, it could affect the outcome of sports teams’ games, practices, and meets.

Many sports, such as football and swimming, have intensive practice schedules over summer vacation, for instance. Going to a year-round school calendar would put constraints on those practices.

This could influence a better outcome for sports that are on a traditional, agrarian calendar.

Mr. Robert Markwardt, KHS history teacher who also is the Davison softball coach, hopes the balanced calendar does not have the negative impact on his team’s schedule.

“This season will be my first encounter with the balanced calendar and our softball season,” Markwardt said. “I believe we will have games and practices scheduled during the final intercession of the year.”

A new school calendar could also cause stress on coaching staffs and even student athletes. They may have to practice over breaks or miss practices or maybe even games, due to vacations.

Although academics are the most important factor in schooling, sports could be a deal breaker for some. Opinions on year-round schooling vary depending on what’s important for specific people. 

Senior Garrett Brandon, a lineman on the football team, thinks that making a change to the calendar would have a minor impact on sports practice schedules.

“We practiced a ton over the summer, but that wouldn’t really change much if we had school,” Brandon said. “We would just end up practicing after school like always during the season.”