Public forum scheduled to discuss school calendar
Seeking community input on the possibility of adopting an alternative school calendar for the entire school system, the Warren County Board of Education will hold a public forum next month at the high school.
“This is simply going to be a listening meeting where we’re going to give equal time to both sides. There will be no voting,” said school board member David Sneed.
Considering an alternative calendar for the entire school system began in earnest several months ago as Bobby Ray Elementary started the second year of its two-year, 45-15 pilot program. When school board members approved the pilot program in spring 2001, it was their intention to see if such a program would be feasible for the entire system.
Surveys completed last month by both the school board and the Warren County Education Association showed a 45-10 calendar to be the most popular with county teachers, followed by the traditional calendar and the 45-15 calendar, respectively.
Under a 45-10 calendar, students would begin school around the first of August and attend four, nine-week (45-day) sessions, followed by three, two-week (10-day) breaks. They would end school around the first of June with an eight-week summer break. This calendar is a slightly modified version of the 45-15 calendar where students attend nine-week sessions, followed by three-week breaks, with a six-week summer break.
Proponents of the alternative calendars say they are more balanced than the nine-months-on, three-months-off traditional calendar. The strongest advantages of the alternative calendar concept, they said, are the improvement of continuity in curriculum and the reduction of summer learning loss.
The school board is set to discuss the adoption of a system-wide alternative calendar during its annual winter retreat, to be held in February. Before any decision of calendar changes can be made, it must meet with the approval of the Warren County Education Association which, by contract, proposes the school calendar every year.
The hour-long public forum will take place at 5:45 p.m. Jan. 26 at Warren County High School. Both sides will be allowed 30 minutes to state their positions.