Board OKs School Calendar

By Eliza Hallabeck

The calendars for the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years were approved by the Board of Education during its meeting on Tuesday, March 3, with only one change to the wording as put together by the Calendar Committee.

Changes to the school calendar include a reduction of days off during February break and no longer having days off of school on Veterans’ Day or Columbus Day.

The changes the Calendar Committee presented to the school board were compiled by a survey created by a subcommittee of the Calendar Committee. According to the survey results, more than 73 percent of respondents wanted a change to the existing school calendar.

The survey, which was taken by 834 people in the community, asked questions like: Does the academic calendar for 2008-2009, as a model, meet your family’s educational needs? Would you prefer to attend school on Columbus Day and/or Veterans’ Day in order to start later or end the school year earlier?

To the question which best meets your family’s needs during the month of February? 21.4 percent answered a week off, while 78.6 percent answered that a long weekend would best suit their family. The February break was subsequently removed from the proposed school calendars for the next two years while a long weekend took its place.

According to the survey, 58.3 percent of responders said they would prefer to attend school on Columbus Day and/or Veterans’ Day.

From the start of the school board’s meeting, Board of Education member David Nanavaty said he had concerns regarding taking action on deciding on the calendar that night, and preferred postponing the decision until the calendar could be looked into by the superintendent of schools.

“I think we ought to consider that there is a bill going through now that requires all schools start after labor day,” Mr Nanavaty said.

The calendar for the 2009-2010 academic year has students starting school on September 2 and the projected last day of school is June 11. For the 2010-2011 school calendar the first day of school is scheduled for September 1 and the last day of school is projected for June 13. The current school year, which had a week break in February and both Veterans’ Day and Columbus Day off, started August 27 for students and the last day of school, when the calendar was put together, was projected for June 19.

The 2009-2010 school calendar is available for viewing at www.newtown.k12.ct.us/page.php?pid=396, and the 2010-2011 calendar should be added to the web soon, according to school board Secretary Kathy Fetchick.

The only change the school board made to the proposed school calendars was in the wording of how to add school days back to the calendar in the event of a snow day or other school cancellation. As the school board approved on Tuesday, days will be added to the end of the school year in June, but if the days exceed June 30, the days will start to be taken away from the April break.

The topic of the school calendars will be discussed further at the school board’s next meeting, scheduled for March 17.

Other topics during the school board’s meeting included a brief summary by Mr Nanavaty on the bids for the high school as the Morganti Group and Fletcher Thompson wait for bids to come back on March 25.

“They are anticipating there is going to be substantially more interest,” Mr Nanavaty said during a summary of the Public Building and Site Commission’s last meeting.

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson also brought up the significance of imposed and voluntary reductions to the school district’s budget.

“Everybody is taking a hit,” Dr Robinson said. She also added that the changes to the budget for the coming year, which includes a furlough of six days for teachers in the district, is only a one year exception.