Northern businesses welcome post-Labor Day school start

Granholm leaning toward signing law to boost tourism

Eric English
Bay City Times
9/23/05

Marian Charters' chocolate shop in East Tawas caters to vacationers, so she hopes Gov. Jennifer Granholm will sign new legislation to start the school year after Labor Day.

"It would increase tourism and help the economy everywhere, not just up north," Charters said.

Her viewpoint is shared by Barry Owens, president of Garland Resort, an upscale golf and vacation-home development in Oscoda County near Lewiston.

"We would consider it a huge benefit, for a variety of reasons," said Owens, who sees a post-Labor Day school year extending peak summer traffic.

Such tourism-reliant businesses have long favored requiring school districts to delay the start of the new year until after Labor Day, according to Tom Ferguson, director of the Michigan's Sunrise Side Travel Association. The group represents nine counties in the northeastern Lower Peninsula.

Their wishes have never been closer to becoming a reality. The Michigan Legislature on Wednesday approved a bill to require a post-Labor Day school year statewide. The legislation is now headed to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's desk, and she is leaning toward signing it into law.

Yet Carolyn Wierda, superintendent of Bay City Public Schools, has a few concerns about the possible impact of starting school after Labor Day. Students attended their first day of classes this year on Aug. 29, while Labor Day was Sept. 5, she said.

One concern is that a later start would mean less time for the district to make sure it has enrolled all of its students before a head count determines how much state funding the district will receive, Wierda said. Bay City Schools has 9,800 students.

Typically, it takes several weeks before students are through transferring in or out of the district for the school year, she said.

Another concern is that MEAP testing for students grades 8 and below is now in early October rather than spring, meaning less time to get ready for the testing process, Wierda said.

"I don't know if they are insurmountable problems, but we do have to take them into account," she said.

Until now, lawmakers were reluctant to take up the post-Labor Day issue out of concern that it would limit the ability of local school districts to set their own calendars. Another concern was that such a move would simply extend the school year in June, which is also a top travel month.

But a law requiring schools to operate 180 days was changed in 2003 to base the school year on hours of instruction. Ferguson said that gives districts the option to lengthen school days by 20 minutes or so, which shortens the school year.
Growing concern that the state's tourism industry was on its heels in the face of poor weather, rising gas prices and a lackluster economy put the issue back on lawmakers' agendas this year.

One northern school district already begins school after Labor Day. The Oscoda Area Schools, in Iosco County, began the practice three years ago out of local concern that it would help the late summer tourism industry in the shoreline town.

Oscoda Superintendent Christine Beardsley said if Labor Day falls late in September, the district still starts school the week before the holiday. This year, Oscoda began classes on Aug. 30 to prepare for the early MEAP testing, she said.

Ferguson said the proposed law also is unlikely to change the fall athletic calendar, which has football teams practicing in August, as well as extracurricular activities such as marching band getting under way.

But for resorts like Garland, a post-Labor Day school year would still help business, because most people could plan for vacations through Labor Day, Owens said.

Owens said the change also would allow high school students who work summers at the resort to stay on their jobs a little longer.

"Right now, with school starting on Aug. 22, we lose a lot of our staff," he said.

David Lorenz, vice president of Travel Michigan, said informal monitoring of the state's tourism industry this year shows that business was about the same as last year, or even a little bit better.

"Some lakeshore communities were doing quite a bit better, because people were escaping the heat," Lorenz said. "Also, the farther away from Detroit you are, the worse you are doing, and that's probably because people aren't driving as far because of gas prices."