Loading ...
The calendar, proposed by the teachers’ union-selected calendar committee, would have moved finals to before winter break, which board members saw as a crucial step towards reducing student stress. To accommodate these changes, school would start on Aug. 18, and would end on the last day of May. Currently, school starts on Aug. 24 and ends Jun. 9.
Under the proposed calendar, winter break would begin Dec. 22 and end Jan. 9. The complete calendar proposal can be viewed here.
The discussion was opened up to community members who submitted comment cards during the meeting. Nearly thirty voiced their opposition to the proposal, citing a litany of problems with the new calendar.
Many worried parents were concerned about the calendar’s impact on family vacations.
“For my family, the current calendar works best,” parent Sally Beemis said. “Our family situation is that we can only take a long, extended vacation during August.”
Others challenged the assumption that moving finals before break would reduce stress at all.
“It’s way more stressful to cram it [finals] all in in December,” parent Nicole Bayers said.
“It is a great goal to try to reduce stress, but I don’t think we are looking at the right source,” said Jane Harris, who has a 10th grader and 7th grade student in the district.
Some community members expressed concern that the proposal was being hastened through the confirmation process by the board.
“What’s the rush?” Paly economics teacher and parent Debbie Whitson asked. “Even assuming that there is a benefit to finals before winter break, at what cost?”
Several procedural questions came up during the discussions as well. One parent cited concerns about the lack of criteria for success.
“Without a clear plan to determine whether it [the calendar] has worked or not, I urge you all to reject the proposal,” parent Cosmo Niccolo said.
A perceived lack of communication was also an issue.
“What I’d like to share tonight is the poor communication on this issue,” parent Scott Hayes said. “If this issue goes to a vote tonight, and elementary and middle school parents feel they were not properly informed and not sufficiently represented, I’m not going to try and make projections, but I think we’re going to have a real issue here.”
Two Paly seniors, Lori Krakirian and Maragret Kadifa, also spoke against the calendar, saying that cramming finals, national tests, sports and college applications into December would put too much pressure on seniors.
The board also disclosed that the calendar committee, which is in charge of putting the proposal together, had only proposed one calendar, meaning that rejecting the current proposal would not lead to defaulting to a rollover calender. Instead, it would just result in a new proposal from the calendar committee.
The overwhelming opposition in the meeting astounded the board members, who acknowledged the complaints and began working on the best way to move forward.
“The comments tonight were astounding,” board member Camille Townsend said. “I think we’ve heard way too many problems.”
In response to community complaints, the board began discussing possible alternatives.
Superintendant Kevin Skelly proposed that the board ask for a calendar with a longer second semester than first semester, and ask teaching departments in PAUSD if it would be possible to adapt to a twenty-day difference in semesters.
“My suggestion is that we let the teachers choose whether they prefer a rollover calendar or skewed semesters,” Skelly said.
Townsend and board President Barbara Klaunser were less willing to make such a fast change. They suggested that the board go to a rollover calendar for 2011-2012, giving teachers almost a year to plan for a skewed-semester calendar.
One rule the calendar must follow, per teachers’ union negotiations, is maintaining the 180 instructional days that most schools have. Currently, both semesters have 90 instructional days.
By making the first and second semester lengths 80 and 100 days, respectively, PAUSD schools could have finals before winter break without changing the start dates for school or winter break. This would likely prevent many of the schedule problems that community members are worried about.
The board decided to table the proposal so that they could discuss the issues in more depth.
“I am not prepared to vote on this proposal tonight,” Klausner said.
Some community members who had sat through the four-hour meeting were upset with the noncommittal decision.
“It’s like a social club,” one anonymous attendant shouted. “I can’t believe you [the board] aren’t going to vote.”
The board chose to have the vote on the Dec. 7 meeting, giving the calendar committee time to work on the possibility of a skewed-semester year.