Parents want later start of school year
Proposal divides Brevard district

Kate Brennan
Florida Today
10/31/05

Summer is a bummer for Florida students because it ends too soon.

That's the message a growing number of parents in South Florida and beyond are trying to spread. And they've enlisted the help of two Miami area legislators who are trying to make a later school start date state law.

Their proposal is to return the start of school to early September or late August by next year.

Fed up with early start dates, Sherry Sturner, a mother of two students in the Miami-Dade school district, launched a grassroots group called Save Our Summers -- Florida, to reclaim August as a traditional summer month. She's garnered support from about 4,000 other parents, who have signed an online petition in favor of a September start date.

"I just really feel that we're losing our summers," Sturner said. "We're not looking for longer summers, we're just trying to shift it back to the way it was."

Sturner and the group argue a later start date would benefit students, teachers, families and taxpayers. They say, a later start date would:

  • Allow students to attend overnight summer camps in northern states.
  • Align summer break with most northern states, where school doesn't typically start before late August. This would give Florida families, many of whom have relatives up north, the chance to coordinate vacations.
  • Reduce costs associated with cooling school buildings during one of Florida's hottest months, which would save taxpayer dollars.

    But three Brevard County School Board members said starting school later has serious implications to students' performance on the FCAT, among other things.

    "The fact that there would be less class time before the FCAT would certainly make an impact," School Board Chairman Larry Hughes said. "There are unintended consequences of changing these start dates. And I don't think it's a good idea."

    Across the state, the start of school has been creeping earlier and earlier. This year, school started Aug. 8 for Brevard public schools' students and for students in 27 other districts around the state. School started even earlier in 26 other districts. By Aug. 16, all 67 Florida school districts were in session.

    That's not the case in most northern states, and a decade ago that wasn't the case in most Florida districts, including Brevard.

    Brevard public schools used to start in mid to late August and students used to take semester exams after winter break. But about 10 years ago, a calendar committee voted to start school earlier so students could finish first-semester exams before the holidays. That schedule is now a school board policy.

    It's up to school districts to set their own calendars. Superintendent Richard DiPatri, along with the majority of school board members, agrees it should stay that way.

    "When you try to prescribe for 67 districts, it doesn't take into account local needs, desires, wants and such," DiPatri said.

    But, he added, "While I would not like to see it (the school start date) prescribed from Tallahassee, if this community wants a change, they should have it."

    Every year, schools experience a rise in enrollment after Labor Day. That's when families who move to Brevard register their children, unaware they've already missed four weeks of school.

    But that's not a reason to change a decade-old schedule based on student success, said, school board member Robert Jordan said.

    "Our system has been successful for a lot of good reasons, and one of them, I think, is the school calendar. It's right where it should be," Jordan said.

    School board member Amy Kneessy agrees. Not only would a later start date affect first-semester exams, it would disrupt other academic and vocational programs aligned with the district's school schedule, she said.

    Tina Winchester, who has a kindergartner and a fourth-grader at Manatee Elementary in Viera, supports the proposal to push back the school start date.

    "I'd much rather see school start after Labor Day," said Winchester.

    Jessica Haughton, an eighth-grader at Kennedy Middle School in Rockledge, wants school to start after Labor Day. But her mother, Dorine Haughton, doesn't think starting school a couple weeks earlier or later makes a big difference.

    "They're going to go to school just the same so it doesn't matter," she said.

    School board member Janice Kershaw doesn't think a later start date would make much difference in overall student performance, but if school started later, she'd want the FCAT pushed back to give students the same amount of time to prepare for it.

    Whenever the school year starts, Joe Brown, who has an eighth-grade son at Kennedy Middle School, hopes state legislators consider giving students more time off from school.

    "They need a couple more weeks off," he said.

    Contact Brennan at kbrennan@flatoday.net

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