Tampabay: School start creeps into early August

TAMPA -- Reality came crashing down on the kids at the Forest Hills Recreation Center the other day, a sweaty Thursday filled with hours and hours of unadulterated play.

In between swimming and sand castles, some big person uttered the dreaded six-letter word, S-C-H-O-O-L. In July, no less.

"It stinks," says 9-year-old Blake Siegfried, a sunburned fourth-grader. "Time flies when you're having fun."

The talk was about school and how it's starting back soon, sooner than soon. Less than two more weeks of glorious summer vacation are left for Hillsborough schoolchildren.

"It went, just like that," says fourth-grader Danielle Scarberry, snapping her fingers.

Didn't school just end?

If you're thinking school seems to be starting earlier and earlier every year, you're right. (It's also ending earlier for the summer.)

Even some moms and dads are dumbfounded.

"It used to be like a month later," says Danielle's mother, Jan Scarberry. "Everybody says, "Gah, school is starting so early.' It used to seem we had more time."

Hillsborough public schools start Aug. 8, a full three weeks earlier than 30 years ago.

Students in Holmes and Washington counties in northwest Florida return Aug. 1, the earliest in the state.

Pasco, Hernando and Citrus begin on Aug. 13, and Pinellas, Aug. 22.

But Pinellas youngsters shouldn't laugh long. School Board members have agreed to move up the first day of school to early August next year to fit in with neighboring districts.

"Soon it's going to be the Fourth of July at the rate we're going," said Jade Moore, executive director of the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association. "Quite honestly, I don't understand it."

Districts are altering their calendars primarily so students can complete their first semester exams before Christmas and gain more instructional time before the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests are given early next year.

Pasco Superintendent John Long said many schools worried that those that started earlier had an advantage over the late starters.

"The FCAT is such a high-stakes test," said Long, whose district bumped up its school year last year. "Schools are in competition with other school systems. Most of the school systems around the state backed up the starting time a week or two weeks."

This chip, chip, chipping away has left some wondering whether this is the beginning of the gradual end of summer vacation.

"To me it's like well, chop up the whole summer," said Michele Walpole, who has a child at Wharton High School and one at Hunter's Green Elementary in north Tampa. "I think that's the plan."

To Harry Cooper, psychology professor at the University of Missouri, it's about time.

He questions whether the existing school calendar, a throwback to the early 20th century, is outdated for today's families whose children are raised by single or working parents.

"The calendar we have today was established when 85 percent of Americans were tied in some way to the agricultural cycle," said Cooper, who has studied summer school. "Today that number is less than 5 percent. There seems to be no rationale for the long, three-month summer break."

The creeping date has stunned new residents from the Northeast used to starting school after Labor Day. It also has caused some families to alter vacations.

But parent James Helton says he's all for it.

"I think school should be year-round," said Helton, whose comment earned him a swift punch in the arm from his 9-year-old daughter, Kayla, a fourth-grader at Forest Hills Elementary. "There's never enough time for all the education the kids need."

In 1970, Hillsborough schools started on the last day of August. Ten years later, the date was moved up a week, where it remained for most of the next 20 years.

And in 1998, the School Board moved the start to the first of August to accommodate high school students and teachers who wanted to complete semester exams before the winter break instead of afterward.

Four years later, "I think everyone has gotten into the groove," said Mary Gonzalez, a former Gaither High English teacher who pushed for the change as former president of the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association. "We just felt it was fairer to the kids."

Gonzalez said it makes sense since colleges and universities are similarly scheduled.

The state doesn't dictate when schools start, only that they provide a minimum 180 days of instruction. Last year, the School Board tacked on an extra four days -- at a cost of about $12-million -- because of the time it takes to prepare for standardized testing and semester exams.

But the reasons matter not to the kids at the Forest Hills Recreation Center, who are groaning about the swift end of summer.

Superintendent Earl Lennard sympathizes. But if he has his way, summer break will get even shorter, to just July.

"I feel we ought to go 200 days so we could have additional time on task, pay teachers for additional time," he said. "We'd have all July off and start like we are now."

- Melanie Ave covers education and can be reached at (813) 226-3400.

Start dates

Hillsborough: Aug. 8

Pasco: Aug. 13

Hernando: Aug. 13

Citrus: Aug. 13

Pinellas: Aug. 22

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