TIME ON TASK (Part 2 of 2)

Last time I discussed a general summary of the Attleboro Public School calendar and the related issues from the past year or so.  I also explained that I have a concept for a school calendar that would do many positive things.

The concept is simply to take the two full-day professional development days that are currently in December (as part of the December vacation) and have them in August, for the teaching staff, with the kids starting the Tuesday after Labor Day.

The teachers and staff have already voiced that they are willing to come back in August, plus by having the full-day training in August it gives the teachers many positive things, that I'll touch on below...

So, this is what the new calendar would look like…

Tuesday, Aug. 28 and Wednesday, Aug. 29 - The teaching staff would have full days of training (which is used to train the staff on various required issues before the kids come back). 

Thursday, Aug. 30 – All staff have a full day of training (mainly to cover the requirements necessary before the kids come back). This day is nothing new.

Friday, Aug. 31 through Monday, Sept. 3 - All staff and students are off for the Labor Day break/weekend.  (This is the same as always) 

Tuesday the fourth – grades 1-12 students attend school.

Dec. 22 through Jan. 1 - December vacation for a total of 11 days (instead of 13)

June 12- School ends for grades 1-11.

Ok, so let’s go through the pros and the cons of this new calendar idea.

Starting with the cons:

Really the administration only had one viable reason against this, and it had to do with professional development (training) for the teaching staff. 

The stated that those two full-day professional days in December (which again, extends the December vacation) are used to train the staff on issues that have arisen over the course of the school year (between September through December).

Ok, fair enough, sounds legit.  With school starting at the beginning of September, when Dec. 20 comes around there has only been about three and a half months of school.  Could some issues have occurred that would require training?  Sure, I’m not going to argue that.  But why couldn’t some of the six (6) half-day professional days be used for this type of thing? 

In addition, if you have three full days of PD in August before the first day of school for students, would there really be a need to have a half day PD day in September or even in October (as is planned now)?  That means that these half-days could be scheduled later in the year, maybe in connection with the beginning of the November, December or February vacations (for the convenience of the families) and used for needed training for issues that have arose since the start of school.

So what other arguments are there for the cons? 

Honestly, I can’t come up with any other than this is change, and sometimes change is difficult…

Now for the pros:

1.  Ends school five days earlier decreasing any concern about snow days (just like the proposed calendar)

2.  Increases (not decreases) the length of the consecutive summer vacation for families by five days.

2.  Does not decrease the special education extended school year summer vacation (actually increases it a couple of days).

3.  Can provide an opportunity to hold staff training in areas that could be used for the entire year, starting the first day of school. So if the Director for Teaching and Learning finds a great anti-bullying program, or a great math teaching seminar, the teaching staff can use the information on day one instead of four months later.

4.  Will bring the teaching staff back two days earlier than they would have, which gives them more time in school, with the principal, setting up their classroom (after hours or during their lunch break) and dealing with any issues, than they would have.

5.  Decreases the length of the December vacation from 13 days to 11 days.  Since this was a big complaint that I heard from parents in December, this new calendar fixes it.

6.  Gets the students those three extra instructional days prior to their taking the MCAS tests (just like the August start calendar will).

So where’s the down side?  I think any reasonable person would agree that this concept has merit with way more positives than possible negatives.

I had planned to also discuss having half-day professional development on Fridays for the convenience of the families, but I want to stay focused on this specific discussion and prevent this from getting any longer.  Until next time.

By the way, I kept this down to less than two pages!