Thoughts on the District Calendar

Thank You

With the revised calendar looking much different than the calendar that was proposed in public forums, I have ceased allowing comments on this blog.  Most of the comments are in regards to what was originally proposed and not relevant to the revised calendar.  I will allow comments after the revised calendar has been shared on Thursday (27th).
I have also deleted all comments as they were made in regards to a calendar that no longer exists. Thank you for sharing your comments, specially those of you willing to put your name behind them.  While we will not always agree, I hope through this process we can develop a stronger sense of trust as well as stronger community support and parental involvement.  Only by working together can we make Central a strong and innovative district.

Traditional Calendar vs. Alternative Calendar

In Central’s last newsletter I shared about exciting changes in education, specifically those being looked into here at Central.  One of those changes was revising our district calendar.  Our calendar committee has been meeting and we are looking into making some serious changes to the calendar.  One thing we are interested in changing is the length of our summer break (currently 83 days).  Below I attached our student data that strongly shows the negative affects of a long summer break.  The curious thing I found in researching our data is that the long break affects our highly proficient students the most.  We believe by lessening the summer break and building in breaks throughout the school year, student regression will improve.  Another reason we are looking into making some changes is that our current calendar limits the students and their families that are involved in extra-curricular activities.  With breaks throughout the school year we hope that families can spend more time together without their children having to go to a practice or event.  This will not always be the case as many of our seasons overlap each other.  During "seasons" the school will remain open for practices, similar to our breaks in the current calendar.  The committee is also looking at ways to add interventions for students who are struggling.  One idea would be to add intervention times into our breaks.  If a student is failing a class, they will continue to go to school during these times (receiving the extra support they need), while students who did well in their classes would get extra days of break.  As the committee continues to work through proposed changes I will be hosting public forums to share our ideas and receive your feedback.  Change can be hard, and tackling the school calendar will not be easy.  Our traditional school calendar was designed for a time period when tractors didn’t have lights and most students were needed on the family farm.  As education has evolved, the calendar has remained unchanged.  Now is the time to tackle the calendar structure and ensure that Central’s district calendar promotes high academic achievement for all students.