Capacity Gain at Year-Round Schools
How can year-round schools hold more students than those on the traditional calendar?
The Wake County Public School System operates its year-round schools on a multi-track calendar. This means that the students in the school are split into four groups or “tracks,” with each track following a different schedule. The schedules are staggered so that at any given time, three of the tracks or groups are in school and one track is out on break.
Every three weeks, one of the four groups will “track out” and the teacher and students take a three-week break. At the end of the break, that teacher and his/her class will come back to school and move into the classroom that has been occupied by the next class to track out. This continues throughout the school year, with each class in school for 45 school days and then out of school for 15 school days.
To see a capacity gain, schools need to have at least four classes of students per grade level; schools with more classrooms see more of a gain. Depending on the number of classrooms, a school on the multi-track year-round calendar can hold 20 to 33 percent more students than a school on the traditional calendar. For every three schools on the year-round calendar, that’s one less school that has to be built.
In a traditional calendar school, four classes of students need four classrooms. As seen in the table below, on the multi-track calendar, four classes of students only need three classrooms because one class is always tracked out. Each of the four classes is on a different calendar track, and only three tracks are in session at a time. If a school has five classes per grade level, four classrooms are needed because one of the tracks will have two classes. When the bigger track (with two classes) is in session, along with two of the smaller tracks (each with one class), four rooms are needed. Similarly, six classes require five classrooms and two of the tracks have two classes. Seven classes require six classrooms and three of the tracks each have two classes. When a school is big enough to have eight classes on a grade level, it only needs six classrooms because every track is “doubled” with two classes on each track. Only six classes are in session at any one time.
Per Grade Level (K-5) |
Number of Classes per Grade Level on Each Track |
Needed Classrooms |
3 rooms serve 4 classes |
1 + 1 + 1 + 1 |
Each track has 1 class; all 3 rooms are always in use |
4 rooms serve 5 classes |
2 + 1 + 1 + 1 |
One track has 2 classes; 1 room is empty when track 1 is out |
5 rooms serve 6 classes |
2 + 2 + 1 + 1 |
Two tracks have 2 classes; 1 room is empty when tracks 1 or 2 are out |
6 rooms serve 7 classes |
2 + 2 + 2 + 1 |
Three tracks have 2 classes; 1 room is empty when track 1, 2 or 3 is out |
6 rooms serve 8 classes |
2 + 2 + 2 + 2 |
Each track has 2 classes; all 6 rooms are always in use |
What does that gain mean in terms of students? An elementary school with six rooms per grade level (kindergarten through fifth), at 23 students per class, can hold 828 students on the traditional calendar (6 x 6 x 23). That same school on the multi-track year-round calendar, however, can hold eight sections per grade with 23 students per class, for a total of 1,104 students (8 x 6 x 23). Subtracting 828 from 1,104 shows the year-round school can hold 276 additional students, a 33 percent capacity gain.
When a school does not have enough classrooms to house six rooms per grade level at one time, the percentage of students gained will be lower. Capacity gains will also be impacted by fluctuations in enrollment from grade level to grade level. One grade level may be large enough for eight sections while another grade level may only need six or seven sections.