School calendar passes with Aug. 7 start-Every school now on same schedule

The Warren County School System will be starting school a week earlier this year, and every school will be on the same calendar.

After a month of open debate, the School Board approved a 2008-09 calendar last night that features an Aug. 7 start date, roughly a week before this year’s first day of Aug. 13.

The calendar passed by a 5-1 vote.

A specially called School Board meeting two weeks ago featured heated discussion and several concerned citizens addressed the board. Such controversy was absent from last night’s meeting with Nick Gawel the only person to address the board in a brief and pleasant statement.

‘I ask you as a board to look at the facts before you, and look at the recommendation before you,’ said Gawel, indicating a committee of educators recommended the calendar the board was voting on.

The 2008-09 calendar is viewed as a compromise between Bobby Ray Elementary, which was on its own schedule, and the rest of the school system. The first day of school for Bobby Ray this year was July 30.

The new calendar means Bobby Ray students will start a week later, while the rest of the students will start a week earlier.

School Board member Larry Judkins says the unified calendar is a ‘good compromise’ and he pointed out it will save money because buses won’t have to run separately just to serve Bobby Ray students.

School Board member Gordon McGee Jr., a firm supporter of the proposed calendar, has said it is ‘a great step in the right direction for a better and brighter Warren County School System.’

The calendar allows the first semester to be complete before Christmas break, and it also provides a full week off for fall break (Oct. 13-17) and spring break (March 16-20).

A minor change was added to the proposed calendar before last night’s vote. Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale requested Feb. 13 be added as a day off from school. That is a Friday. Coupled with an existing day off Feb. 16 for President’s Day, that will give students and teachers a four-day break.