Boards will act on school calendar

By Ken Rogers, The Messenger

March, 2005

The complex decisions of setting a school calendar for Troy City Schools and Pike County Schools actually comes down to basic math.

The equation for the upcoming 2005-06 school year doesn't add up to a full week's intersession in October following the first nine weeks grading period. But the first semester will still end before the Christmas holiday.

School boards for both public systems will get recommendations for next year's school calendar at the next meeting. That is Monday night for the Pike County Board of Education. The Troy City School Board next meets March 28.

Superintendents Dr. Linda Felton-Smith (Troy) and Dr. Mark Bazzell (Pike County) have discussed the school calendar. "We share the Center for Technology, so we need to work on the calendar together," Dr. Felton-Smith said Friday.

There is a Calendar Committee for Troy City Schools, she said. Dr. Bazzell said teachers in the Pike County Schools system voted on two proposals. Parents are not represented on the calendar committee for either system.

Setting the school calendar used to be much more difficult, Bazzell recalled.

"It was a time-consuming process," he said. "But with 176 student days mandated it's a lot less complicated. There aren't as many options any more, especially since you can't start before Aug. 10."

The reason for the lost full week in October is due to that Aug. 10 start date.

"We have accountability mandates - AYP (Annual Yearly Progress), No Child Left Behind - that require us to inform parents of how our schools are performing," Dr. Felton-Smith said.

Results from the graduation exams, the Alabama Reading and Math Tests (ARMT), the Stanford Achievement Tests are among data that factors into a school's progress report.

"This year, we started school before we got the data back," Dr. Felton-Smith said. "This year, it is strongly recommended not to start school until we have that data ready to provide to parents. We're going to follow that recommendation and start school on Aug. 10."

Once the fixed start date is established, it's easy to get agreement on when the first semester finishes up - before the Christmas holidays.

This year, the last day of school for the first semester is Tuesday, Dec. 20. Students will return to start the second semester on Thursday, Jan. 5.

With a 176-day calendar, the first semester needs to be 87 or 88 days long. Blocking off the "normal" holidays for Labor Day, Veterans Day, a conference day with parents and three days at Thanksgiving, that doesn't leave a full week for an October intersession.

"Our first proposal our teachers voted on didn't have any October break but had a full week off for Thanksgiving," Dr. Bazzell said. "But it's a long time between Labor Day and Thanksgiving without any time off. So we put in two days for an intersession and kept the three days at Thanksgiving. Our teachers approved that 52 percent to 48 percent - it was close - but that's the calendar I will recommend to the School Board."

He will amend it slightly. Troy City's proposed calendar included coming back on Jan. 5 and included a day off on Good Friday. Bazzell said the county calendar had students coming back on Friday, Jan. 6, but didn't have them off on Good Friday. He said he would recommend to the Board that it change the proposal to start on Jan. 5 and have Good Friday off.

"I liked having the full week in October," Dr. Felton-Smith said. "But when you start on Aug. 10 and have to complete the first semester before Christmas, there just isn't a way to make it work - unless you make kids stay in school all the way up to Christmas weekend."

She said she understood parents' or faculty concerns about the changes in October.

"There are some people who have needed to make plans for vacations and have made deposits already," she said. "I'm sorry for that."

The break in October wasn't always a full week, she noted.

"We had to sell it when we started the full week break - now we have to sell it as a partial week," she said.

Robbin Smolcic has two children at Troy Elementary School. In past years, her family traveled during that open week.

"But with the two major holidays coming up after October, I guess two days is enough time off," Smolcic said. "We hadn't made plans for that October week yet."

Dr. Bazzell the full week was lost this school year to Hurricane Ivan makeup days.

"I think I had one e-mail about losing that week," he said.

The proposed second semester keeps the two weeks at spring break. Students will be out of school from March 11 through March 26. Other holidays include the King/Lee Day, Presidents Day, Good Friday and a conference day with parents (half-day).

The 2005-06 school year, as proposed, ends on May 25 for students, May 26 for teachers.