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Later school start date creates ripples

A shorter Thanksgiving vacation. Exams after winter break. Those are two possibilities in the new calendar.

By DONNA WINCHESTER
Published September 23, 2006

The committee could finalize the calendar at that time and forward it to the School Board for its Nov. 14 meeting. Or the committee could start from scratch, in which case it probably would meet again before sending a final draft to the board.

By state statute, the board must approve a final calendar at its Dec. 12 meeting.

Pinellas school officials have put together a proposed school calendar for next year that is likely to touch some nerves.

Thanksgiving vacation may be cut by two days. Second-quarter exams most likely would come after winter break. Students could go almost three months at the end of the year with only one day off.

And teachers would have to wait two more weeks before receiving their first paycheck.

Responding to a new legislative mandate to begin the school year later, the tentative plan calls for an Aug. 21 start date. Students would stay in school through June 3.

Creating a calendar each year is always a challenge, said Ron Stone, chairman of the School District's calendar committee. But the need to begin classes two weeks later is making it even more difficult.

"It's similar to the budgeting process," Stone said. "You're trying to get all the needs of the different constituencies met while complying with the regulations of the state of Florida."

Those regulations - 180 days of class time divided evenly into two semesters, six paid holidays and a number of professional development days for teachers - were compounded in spring when the Florida Legislature passed a bill prohibiting schools from starting earlier than 14 days before Labor Day. The bill, co-sponsored by two politicians from the Miami Beach area, was part of a larger proposal that will reform the curriculum for middle and high schools.

The most difficult task will be to find a way to keep second-quarter exams before winter break, Stone said. Concerns about dismissing students for 10 days then bringing them back for a week of review before testing was the main reason the district moved its start date up from late August in 2002.

"Now we're back to where we were in the old days," he said.

Years ago, many districts adjusted their calendars to align with university schedules so teachers could take classes and high school graduates could get an early start on college. Earlier starts also allowed students to take exams before Christmas break.

But Rep. Dan Gelber said it was pressure to perform well on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test that was pitting districts against each other and causing them to open their doors earlier and earlier each year. In the winter, Gelber won backing from a House committee that abandoned its usual support for local control and approved the legislation.

The debate is reflective of what's happening nationally. North Carolina set an Aug. 25 limit in 2004. Last year, Wisconsin barred schools from starting earlier than Sept. 1. Minnesota decreed earlier this year that schools could not open before Labor Day.

Besides the issue with exams, Pinellas School Board member Carol Cook said she is worried about the effect an early start date will have on dual enrolled students who must be ready to start college classes in early January and for graduating seniors who want to attend summer sessions that begin in mid May.

"It's just not as simple as saying, 'You can't start any earlier than two weeks before Labor Day,' " Cook said.

Despite those drawbacks, a recent St. Petersburg Times poll showed that 68 percent of Florida residents wanted the school year to start in late August or early September. Forty-five percent preferred a start date after Labor Day, and 23 percent asked for late August. Another 23 percent chose early August.

The poll results echoed those of a survey commissioned by Save our Summers, a South Florida group that lobbied for the legislation that mandated the later start date. In that poll, 74 percent of Florida voters supported a uniform school start date in late August.

Shirley Langston of St. Petersburg wasn't among them. She would prefer that her daughter, an honor roll student at Dixie Hollins High School, take her exams before winter break.

Langston also worries that the 16-year-old, who is thinking about taking dual enrollment classes next year at St. Petersburg College, will have trouble aligning her college schedule with her high school schedule. But what really bothers her is how start dates keep changing.

"I firmly believe all children need stability," Langston said. "If you keep changing things on them, it's a very difficult thing."

Holidays in Pinellas, according to the preliminary calendar, will remain the same. Schools will be closed for Labor Day and Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Since the year will continue through May, students will be off for Memorial Day. Students still will get 10 days off at Christmas and five days for spring break.

They may or may not continue to have five days off for Thanksgiving. That will depend on whether reducing the number to three would make enough of a gain to end the first semester before winter break.

Charles Derexson, a member of the calendar committee who represents the Pinellas County Council of PTAs, said the whole thing is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

"We've heard some discussion that the legislators are now looking back at this," Derexson said. "There is a rumor that some of them might go back and take another look at it."

[Last modified September 23, 2006, 05:47:58]