Year Round School for Pasco Students?

With the failure of the levy Tuesday April 26th in Pasco, School District officials are now taking a "hard" look at year round schooling to alleviate overcrowding.

Despite some relief at the high school level with the opening of Chiawana recently, the rest of the school district is dealing with the fastest growing population in the Tri-Cities.  Months ago, PSD leaders were putting together contingency plans in case the 59 million dollar bond for building new middle and grade schools did not pass.  Those fears were realized, as the community only voted 47% in favor-60% supermajority was needed.  According to KNDU TV News-Tri Cities, PSD officials are not sure if they will try a bond again in the near future.  The District plans to add up to 20 'portables' in the near future to deal with the increase in students.  If the year round schooling were approved, students would attend for about 60 days, then have 20 off, and the cycle would repeat.  Currently, no schools in WA state are using this system; a Yakima elementary school tried but dropped the idea a couple of years ago.  The 60-20 cycles (which could be changed to different ratios) would be staggered, with different groups of students attending at different times, so not all would be filling the schools at once.