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“The proposal includes starting a week earlier in August, finals being completed before winter break, and finishing school in May,” Assistant Supt. Scott Bowers said.
The full proposal for 2011-12 and 2012-13, approved by the district calendar committee, can be found here on the PAUSD website.
At tomorrow’s meeting, the school board will look to outline a process for gathering input about the proposed calendars, but will not discuss the merits calendar itself, according to Bowers.
The three weeks following the meeting will be a public comment period, when the district will evaluate feedback sent to [email protected]. On Oct. 26, the school board will discuss the final proposed calendars and on Nov. 9, it will take action to approve or reject them.
“We are doing this to address concerns from secondary teachers and the community over stress for students and maximal use of instructional and study time,” Palo Alto Educators Association President Triona Gogarty said.
The recent magnification of attention on students’ emotional well-being prompted the formulation of the calendar, according to Bowers.
“There are a variety of factors that were weighed in this calendar coming forward,” Bowers said, including the “sort of focus of the district has been placing on the social and emotional health of students.”
The move is intended to allow high school students to enjoy their winter vacation, instead of feeling pressured to study for finals, according to Bowers.
Assistant Principal Kathie Laurence and Principal Phil Winston support the proposed calendar.
“It’s actually better suited for high schools,” Laurence said. “It allows for more time before the AP exams, but it also means that when it’s break, it’s really break. That’s it; there’s nothing you have to do.”
Winston emphasized his hope that the proposed calendar make winter break a homework-free period.
“Having finals before winter break will provide a natural break and rest time for folks free of homework or studying for finals,” Winston said. “Do it; it’s a good thing.”
The district calendar committee used student input as the basis for its proposal.
“We discussed and constructed a calendar that potentially improves pedagogy,” Gogarty said. “We took into consideration the recent Gunn student body vote that approved the proposed change by 85%. A few years ago, a similar Paly vote took place which also approved of the calendar change.”
Some Paly students support the change.
“I would want it before because you don’t have to spend your winter break worrying,” freshman Jon Kosaka said.
Junior Neena Pai added, “It would be nice to have finals before winter break because a lot of people travel during the break and don’t have time to study.”
Some students, who see winter break as additional studying time, oppose the proposed changes.
“I would like the schedule to stay the same,” junior Ashley Swendseid said. “I like to study over winter break and have more time to prep for my finals.”
If the school board passes the proposal, the teachers’ union must ratify the calendar in order for it to take effect, according to Bowers.
“The calendar is under negotiations with teachers’ union, because by the California Education Code, teachers are allowed to organize their school year,” Bowers said.
Over the course of the next several weeks, the school board hopes to receive input through from members of the PAUSD community at [email protected]. Board members want to get as many perspectives as they can before taking action to approve or deny the proposal, Bowers said.