Bobby Ray adopts 45-10 calendar: Rest of school system mostly unchanged
In an effort to better align Bobby Ray Elementary with the rest of the school system, the school board approved a move from a 45-15 to a 45-10 calendar for the 2004-2005 school year.
The move will shorten the school’s fall and spring breaks from three weeks to two so students can begin classes two weeks later in July. The school’s Christmas break will remain three weeks long.
“We wanted to try to modify the 45-15 outline to get it a little closer to the rest of the system,” said Bobby Ray principal Bonnie Collier. “Plus, the two extra weeks in the summer will let us go ahead and receive and distribute our new books and furniture before students arrive.”
Collier added she still believes year-round school is best for students and teachers. As for the rest of the school system, the school board approved a traditional calendar that is not much different than the current school year.
Of the changes to the 2004-2005 school calendar, the most noticeable is moving spring break to the first week of April. The change was made at the request of teachers and principals who felt it to be in the best interest of students to schedule spring break after the TCAP achievement tests in late March.
A mid-March spring break, it is said, takes away a week of valuable instruction time which could be used to better prepare students for the important tests.
Another calendar change came in adding two additional teacher in-service days. These are days in which students do not attend classes. The two days are being pulled from the system’s 13 annual stockpiled inclement weather days, meaning next year there will only be 11 such days.
Several years ago, the school system took advantage of a state law which allows systems to stockpile 13 inclement weather days by permanently extending the school day by 30 minutes (15 minutes in the morning, 15 in the afternoon).
Since taking advantage of this “insurance policy,” the system has yet to use all of the stockpiled days in a single year. State law does not allow unused days to be “refunded.”