Walter Johnson High School issued a statement on Monday, April 1, announcing that year-round school will be instituted this year, officially canceling summer 2024.
Admin cited students having too much fun during the summer months, hindering their ability to learn when they returned to school.
“We want our students to be successful, and being successful means working hard. Our students have this work-hard, play-hard mentality, and we believe it is restricting them from reaching their full potential,” Principal Nicole Morgan said.
However, WJ is trying a new strategy, completely omitting breaks. A typical year-round school calendar features the 45/15 model, meaning that 45 days of instruction are followed by 15 days of break, and this cycle repeats. Admin believes that for a successful education, students should be working all the time. Therefore, they have discarded weekends, breaks, and even the end of the school day, instead adopting the 365/0 model.
“For our scholars to be successful, we decided to eliminate breaks, because weekends and breaks allow them the freedom to do whatever they want, meaning not school. Now, our students will sleep at school, specifically in the basement and the school day will be from 7:45 a.m. to 7:45 p.m.,” Assistant Principal Jeff Leaman said.
Students are enraged over the new calendar, taking it out on admin.
“You can take that year-round calendar and shove it right up your hairy [bleep],” junior Regina George said.
With no summer vacation and no weekends, parents wonder when they will be able to see their kids.
“I’m not a huge fan of my daughter, but we often go on vacation together. We are supposed to go to Florida this summer, and now I must cancel our trip,” parent Carly Norris said.
In addition, fun extracurricular activities, including sports and non-academic clubs, will be canceled after school.
“I love softball and my team. The fact that I cannot represent my school anymore makes me sad, especially because this was my senior year,” senior Allie Berube said.
Year-round school has many benefits, including eliminating the learning loss that occurs during the summer while also providing food all day and all year to students in need.
“Year-round school is beneficial to many. I researched it after admin made their decision. Working year-round gives me the opportunity to take more APs because I have more time to study. I can also take multi-variable calculus because summer learning loss would be gone,” senior Jasmin Wu said.
Year-round school does have many advantages, but it also decreases the summer workforce, as students will not be able to take summer jobs without summer.
“I’m like broke for real, and I rely on my summer internship, which sucks by the way, to provide for my daily Starbucks run. Without Starbucks, how will I survive? My life will like literally end with year-round school,” junior Lena Sbaschning said.
