School officials won’t vote on issue until February, at earliest
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – Faced with the mere possibility that the 2010-2011 school year could start early, e-mails circulated amongst parents and students Monday and Tuesday leading up to a school board discussion about the calendar.
A handful of people addressed the school board Tuesday evening, including a few parents, a student and a representative from the school calendar committee.
“I think you guys are farther down the track than we are,” said School Board member Matt McCain, addressing the members from the public who voiced concerns about the calendar.
The calendar committee is expected to present a recommended calendar to the School Board in February, at which time the board will discuss the recommendation and either approve the calendar or seek modifications to it.
The board is expected to approve the calendar by March or April.
Brooks Robinson, a junior at Vero Beach High School, told the board that starting the school year earlier than normal would cut into summer activities and opportunities students take advantage of, whether that be summer camps, summer jobs, or summer school.
Being in the school’s marching band, Robinson said that he would get just four weeks of summer break – during which he would have to cram Advanced Placement classes, a family reunion, visits to prospective colleges, and other such activities.
Robinson was the only student to address the school board and one of six people who commented on the issue.
Tuesday’s school board meeting, however, drew a standing room only crowd of several parents and many more students – though most of the students were from Indian River Charter High School for a class assignment.
Charter schools are not bound to the same calendar as traditional schools, though they could follow the calendar if they wanted to.
The school district is looking into seeking a waiver from the Florida Department of Education to allow it to start the school year earlier than the state currently allows.
As a “high performance” school district, the district can apply for the special privilege, allowing for the calendar to start earlier than 10 weekdays from Labor Day.
In this case, the district could ask to start the 2010-2011 school year as early as Aug. 9, instead of Aug. 23.
“There is not a perfect calendar,” said Dr. Julius Teske, who is the chair of the calendar committee and the assistant superintendent of human resources for the district.
He added that the calendar could remain unchanged in terms of the start date. Or, if the waiver were approved, the school year could start sometime between Aug. 9 and 23.
According to the school board, the waiver does not guarantee that the district would implement an early start, only that it would give the district flexibility in setting the calendar.
The school calendar committee has discussed the possibility of an early start but it has not yet reached a consensus.
“We’re split,” said committee member Beth Weatherstone during a meeting break.
She said that even she cannot take a stand on the issue because too many questions remain at this point.
One such question she has revolves around the district’s “high performance” designation: If the district receives the waiver and adopts an early start to the school year, what happens if the district loses its special designation? Would the calendar have to revert back to a traditional start the following year?
The switch back would again disrupt the community and the students, according to Weatherstone.
School Board member Debbie MacKay placed the school calendar issue on the agenda for discussion, noting that she wants the committee to do its due diligence before making its recommendations to the board.
MacKay added that all students should be taken into account, not just certain groups – such as those in Advanced Placement classes, the International Baccalaureate program, or those who have dual enrollment.
Board member Carol Johnson said that the place where discussion should be happening regarding the calendar is at the calendar committee meetings and that she would refrain from further comment until the issue comes back to the board for a vote next year.
“This is premature,” board member Claudia Jimenez said of the board’s discussion regarding the calendar.
School Board Chairwoman Karen Disney-Brombach said that the board is aware of how sensitive the community is regarding the possibility of an early start.
“It’s not something I would take lightly,” she said.