School calendar under assault again

I’m thankful there’s not talk of changing around the work week as often as there’s talk of changing around the school calendar. If there was, I’d be working three weeks straight with one week off by now.

Anyone who follows school news knows the one constant that will always remain is the desire to ‘improve’ the school calendar. And by improve, what I really mean to say is change for some silly reason.

Just look at the racket coming from Nashville this week just days into the 2007-08 school year. It’s being made by a non-profit group called SaveTennesseeSummers.org. As you might expect, this group wants to change the school calendar.

Fueled by an August heat wave unlike any in recent memory, SaveTennesseeSummers.org is clamoring for all Tennessee public schools to begin classes after Labor Day.

Group members point to the fact children in a number of Midstate schools have been forced to stay indoors the entire day because it’s too hot for recess. Some schools have even closed early.

Group members say trips too and from school on sweltering school buses are not humane. They say one malfunctioning air conditioner is all it takes to make learning impossible for an entire classroom of students.

Of significance to all Tennesseans with school children is this group’s desire for state lawmakers to pass legislation that forbids school to start before Aug. 25. For those of you counting at home, that would be 12 days after most Warren County schools began this year, and 26 days after Bobby Ray started. Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina are among a number of states that already have laws that govern when school starts.

Somehow, I get the strange feeling this talk about the school calendar is a never-ending discussion. No matter what calendar we adopt, there will be some group, in some corner of the universe, with a list of reasons why we should change it.

The most common cry we’ve heard in recent years is for the alternative school calendar, which has several variations but one main theme ‘ to shorten summer vacation and give more breaks throughout the year.

In Williamson County, the school board has OK’d a trimester schedule for Fairview High School. Fairview principal Tony Donen claims this calendar will boost graduation rates.

I’ve always maintained as long as students are required to spend 182 days in school, I don’t see how one calendar is better than another. Remember all the buzz about the 45-10 calendar producing better test scores? That buzz died down rather quickly when those better test scores never surfaced.

If anything, there are logical reasons to leave the school calendar exactly how it is. Don’t change a thing.

With the mid-August start time, it allows the first semester to be finished by Christmas break. And it allows more classroom time before those all-important standardized tests roll around in April.

We must remember in today’s No Child Left Behind era, a school’s worth is determined by its standardized test scores. Nothing else matters.

So here’s a vote to brave the summer heat and continue starting school in mid-August. It’s not new, it’s not catchy, and it’s not promoting change. But most importantly, it works.

That said, I’m sure we’ll be having this discussion again in another five months. When winter arrives and the weather gets really nasty, I’m confident another school calendar proposal will come along to avoid the cold.

James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].