Winlock School District Tests New Calendar with First Intersession

The Winlock School District’s new calendar faced its first test last week, and so far, it’s passing.

The second week of October marked the first of three “intersessions,” during which teachers and students have the option to either participate in academic activities or take a break. The intersessions come as part of the school district’s Modified Calendar, one of the options made available as part of the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction’s (OSPI) Balanced Calendar Initiative.

“It went really well,” said Mattie Miller, a kindergarten teacher. “I wasn’t sure at first how it’d go. … It felt [like there was] more flexibility that we don’t have in the actual school day. That week really allowed more time for creativeness and activities that normally we wouldn’t be able to get to.”

The goal of the intersessions is to provide an opportunity for students to catch up on schoolwork and participate in enrichment experiences they may not be able to access during the regular school year. In turn, the coming summer break will be shortened from 11 weeks to 8 weeks.

Winlock Superintendent Garry Cameron said approximately 140 students participated in each day of last week’s intersession, with 100 of those students at the elementary school and the remainder at the middle-high school. A total of 781 students were enrolled in the Winlock School District during the 2021–22 school year.

Each day of the intersession, held Monday through Thursday, looked a lot like a typical school day, Cameron said. Students in each grade level worked on academics and had time for lunch, and the schools took students to a pumpkin patch for a field trip.

Miller used the field trip to focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities with her kindergarteners. She had her students build a haunted house using toothpicks and marshmallows, do experiments to see what would happen to candy corn if it was placed in different liquids, and make pumpkins in varied shapes using pipe cleaners.

“Those are things that it’s so hard to put into a school day, so it really allowed a lot of time for STEM activities like that,” Miller said.

Garrett Barnes, a 12th grade student, said the intersession gave him time to catch up on his online classes.

“It was a good time to get some work done when actual school wasn’t in progress,” Barnes said.

Megan Schwarz, who teaches theatre, health, and career and technical education classes at the high school level, opted to teach at the elementary school over the intersession. Schwarz served as a paraeducator, preschool teacher, and fifth grade teacher before moving up to the high school level this school year.

“I knew I wanted to hang out with the little guys,” she said. “I knew I was going to miss them.”

She used the opportunity to implement some project-based learning that she gained experience with during a training this past summer. To do a deep dive into science learning, Schwarz had her students build their own wetlands.

Schwarz said she plans to teach at the next intersession in February as well.

“I enjoy it,” she said. “I don’t do it for the extra money. It’s more because I enjoy hanging out with the kids and I get to do things every teacher wants to do but you never have time to do.”

Lisa Collins, who has been teaching for nearly 37 years, chose not to teach during the intersession.

“For me, it’s never been about the money, ever,” Collins said. “It’s been about the kids. And at my age, I think it’s best that I can give the kids my best, and if I’m going to go to the end of June, I need to take a break every now and then.”

Both Schwarz and Collins agreed that some additional time to plan for the Modified Calendar would have been beneficial.

“Because we’re on this schedule for three years, we’ll know if it’s what’s best for kids,” Collins said. “I really don’t have an opinion at this point because I still think it’s too early, but I’m certainly not against it. … I think we need to give it some time.”

Brenda Cline, who’s in her ninth year of teaching at Winlock Elementary School, said she likes the new calendar.

“I was completely on board for [trying] something different,” Cline said.

Like Collins, Cline also opted not to teach during the intersession. That decision allowed her to help care for her sister after surgery.

“Now that I’ve experienced having that week off, it was really interesting because I was super excited to come to work [on Monday],” Cline said. “That felt really good. It felt like the way that it should feel to be a teacher.”

Cline, Schwarz, and Miller all said they plan to teach at the next intersession in February. Barnes, who plans to attend trade school after graduating, also plans to participate in the February intersession.

“With actual school being paused for a week — missing work or my online stuff, it’s a good time to get that stuff done,” Barnes said.

The Balanced Calendar Initiative is a grant program funded by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) dollars that OSPI has earmarked for learning recovery. OSPI will be following the Winlock School District throughout the 2022–23 school year as it implements its Modified Calendar.

Related: Winlock School District Kicks Off the School Year with a New Calendar

This story was written by Chelsea Embree, Communications Strategist at OSPI. You can contact the Communications Team at commteam@k12.wa.us.