Forty percent of our high school students were failing one or more courses. We knew some research indicated that year-round education could improve academics, improve attendance, and improve teacher and family morale. We looked at double sessions, which this district actually tried during the early 1970s. It was disastrous. Families have to provide child care for half a day, all year.
Extracurricular activities go down the drain.
We decided this was not for Socorro ever again, if we could avoid it. We looked at using more portable classrooms. But that would take construction dollars, too, which we already knew we didn't have. We looked at increasing class sizes. We figured out that we could have put 45 to 48 students per teacher in our middle and high schools to handle the growth we were anticipating.