Beware of "calendar creep"

Slicing off our summer days, one at a time.

Let's begin with two premises:

1. The Central Office admits that there is a traditional calendar in the works.

2. A county resident has informed us a few days ago that her School Board member emailed her in response to a query that there may be a "compromise" calendar for the Board to consider. It would feature one full week of fall break and one week of spring break, but would start on Aug. 7 or 8.

I don't need an abacus to do that math.

When my family and I moved here in 1995 school started much later in August than it does now. I remember not so long ago when school began well after Aug. 20th. But like the proverbial frog in the pot of water not feeling the heat 'til he's cooked, we've let our summer days get sliced off, one or two at a time and didn't take sufficient notice.

So we find ourselves in a day where no longer content with taking a day at a time, the Central Office, some teachers and some administrators wants to devour whole weeks at one gulp.

But there has been so much resistance from an awakened county population that the 3½-week chunk they've tried to slice off this time is too much - they've sliced off more than they can chew. What to do? What to do?

Go back to salami slicing the summer down. Do you see the tactic?

Create a controversy where there was none before by slipping forward a year-round calendar when there was absolutely no public desire that had been expressed for one.

Make sure that there is no public debate on the matter and that the dribble of information presented by the Central Office is entirely biased to one side.

Claim that school families are "evenly divided" on the year-round calendar on the basis of a deeply flawed, haphazardly conducted automated-telephone survey which actually refused to receive some parents' responses.

Admit there is a "traditional" calendar being developed but refuse to release it to the public.

What odds will you give that if the phantom traditional calendar ever comes to light, it will really be a "compromise" calendar with school beginning earlier than ever, by a week or more?

Be on the lookout for "calendar creep," losing summer days in small chunks until we find ourselves with a year-round calendar and wonder how we got there.
Slice! Slice!

Update: The creeping started longer ago than I thought. Here are the last 11 years of first school days:

2005 -- 8/15
2004 -- 8/16
2003 -- 8/11
2002 -- 8/13
2001 -- 8/15
2000 -- 8/16
1999 -- 8/16
1998 -- 8/19
1997 -- 8/19
1996 -- 8/15 ... this was a Thursday half-day; then no class Friday the 16th. The first full day was the 18th.
1995 -- 8/17 ... this was a Thursday half-day; then no class Friday the 18th. The first full day was the 21st.

I never understood having a half-day as the first class day and the next day no class, so WCS had the good sense to drop that practice. The 11-year trendline has been toward earlier starts, though not by as much as a week. IMO that makes a "compromise" calendar too much to swallow because it accelerates the process.