The Legislative Solution to Calendar Excesses

This article will bring you up to date on some exciting new developments in the battle against early school start dates. First, here is a quiz about the history of education.

Name a discredited educational fad:
A. Open multi-class classrooms.
B. Whole-language.
C. "Modern" Math.
D. Early August school start dates.
E. All of the above.

The correct answer is E.


Which of the following discredited educational fads is illegal in NC, TX, FL, MN, SC, VA and WI?
A. Open multi-class classrooms.
B. Whole language.
C. "Modern" Math.
D. Early August school start dates.
E. All of the above.

The correct answer is D. More and more states are banning early August start dates as they recognize the detrimental effects these school calendars have on families, students and state economies. State legislatures in GA, AL and TN are also considering legislation to ban early school start dates.

So, why the strong action by states to establish control over school calendars? This is a legislative response to the efforts by some school districts scattered around the country to impose school start dates earlier than favored by the populace. In these days of tight state budgets, legislators are also wary of the increased economic costs of early school start dates.

Here is a summary of state laws and pending legislation for selected states in the South and Midwest.

North Carolina: State law, schools may start no earlier than Aug 21.
Texas: State law, schools may start no earlier than Aug 21.
Florida: State law, schools may start no earlier than 14 days before Labor Day.
Minnesota, State law, schools may not start before Labor Day.
South Carolina: State law, schools may not start before the third week
in August (beginning 2007-8).
Virginia: State law, schools must start after Labor Day.
Wisconsin: State law, schools must start after September 1.
Georgia: Proposed legislation, schools would start on or after Sept 1.
Alabama: Proposed legislation, schools would start no earlier than
August 21.
Tennessee: Proposed legislation, schools would start no earlier than August 25.

Florida and Texas are two of the states to most recently adopt school calendar laws. Polls showed that 64% of adult Texans wanted school to start after Labor Day. (Dallas Morning News May 19, 2006). 74% of Florida voters preferred a late August school start date. (Orlando Sentinel May 5, 2006).

State legislatures have also been concerned about the high economic costs of early school start dates. The negative economic impact is due to a number of factors, including increased cooling costs for schools during the hottest parts of the year, lost wages for students and teachers who have shorter summer work sessions, harm to the tourism economy from decreased travel in late summer and decreased availability of seasonal workers.

In Tennessee 181,300 people are employed each year as seasonal workers in tourism, the state's second largest revenue producing industry. 53% of those workers come from the school systems. Tourism contributes $8 billion to Tennessee's economy each year and $600 million in local and state tax revenues.Decreased availability of seasonal workers due to early school starts certainly has a negative impact on the local and state economies.

South Carolina recently passed a state law regulating school start dates after a University of South Carolina study documented the negative economic impact that early school start dates were having on the state economy. "With the lost August vacation period restored, more South Carolina tourist related businesses will stay open as the supply of labor is not reduced when school opens. At public hearings, business owners from across the state said early August school starts drained youth employment and forced businesses to close early during August by up to three weeks."

A study in Texas found that starting school two weeks earlier cost the state $790 million. "The benefits of stretching the school year have not been proved; what we do know-it's costing Texans $790 million annually," says Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Texas Comptroller

Georgia's proposed law anticipates increased tax revenue of $114 per student with later school start dates and this new money will be passed along to the school districts.

A secondary benefit of school start date legislation is that fragmentation of five-day instructional school weeks would be reduced. Since the calendar could no longer sprawl into summer vacation to accommodate the non-instructional days, more intact five-day weeks of teaching and learning are maintained.

The Citizens Calendar Committee endorses intact five-day instructional weeks as one of its core principles. We believe that fragmentation of school weeks with insertion of non-instructional days such as focus days, power days, miscellaneous break days, and other non-learning days works against continuity of teaching and learning.

We believe that the 2007-8 calendar being considered by the Williamson County School Board, while not a full fledged "balanced" calendar, starts school too early (August 13), incorporates too many non-instructional days and has too few intact five-day instructional weeks.

The proposed legislation in Tennessee specifies that "the school year shall commence no earlier than August 25."


Until the Tennessee State legislature passes a law that regulates the school calendar, local school boards will have free authority to set school calendar parameters. It will be up to individual citizens and grass roots organizations like the Citizens Calendar Committee to educate the public and provide information to local school boards so they can make informed decisions that reflect the will of their constituents. If you have an opinion about early school start dates and fragmentation of school weeks that you would like to share with our Williamson County School Board, click here.


To express an opinion to your state senator and congressman about school calendars, click here.

Greg Weaver Named President of CCC

The Citizens Calendar Committee is pleased to announce the promotion of board member Greg Weaver to the position of President.

Over the past several months CCC has come to understand that an important component to finding a more permanent solution to the ongoing fight to halt School Boards from abusing school calendars is to expand our focus beyond Williamson County. Greg has proven to be a tireless worker, researching and reporting on the “big picture” so that we can tap into the resources of other states and school systems which have already gone down this road. In his role a President, Greg will be responsible for leading the charge on broader issues as we continue our march to insist on a traditional calendar and the highest standards for the students of Williamson County.

Mr. Weaver has proven to be an integral part of CCC's success as our organization has grown from a handful of concerned parents to a powerful advocate for excellence in education. We're excited to see where he's going to lead us!

WCS Calendar Update

Q: Where have you guys been?

A: Since the “balanced” calendar was defeated for the 2006-07, and we thought the 2007-08 calendar was pretty much resolved, we’ve been making up for all the time we lost with our “real” jobs and responsibilities. However, we have continued to monitor the ongoing calendar discussions at School Board meetings and work sessions.


Q: What will the 2006-07 calendar look like?

A: The 2006-07 was finalized at the February School Board meeting is very much the same as the 2005-06 calendar that we just completed. The first ½ day for students is August 14.


Q: Where do we stand on the 2007-08 calendar?

A: This is a tougher question. In response to the chaos surrounding the 2006-07 calendar, the Board decided it would be beneficial for everybody if they began planning the 2007-08 calendar a year in advance. The Calendar Committee has constructed a proposal, but the School Board has not yet approved the calendar.

While the proposed calendar for 2007-08 is not a year-round calendar, it is the opinion of CCC that this is a major step towards “calendar creep,” a phenomenon by which year-round calendar advocates move toward their goal a little bit at a time. Due to a nearly week-long Fall break and an increased number of Professional Development days, the calendar forces students to begin school a full week earlier than need be in August, thus “sprawling” the calendar over more of the year.

As of this writing, the 2007-08 calendar has not been finalized because the Board is still debating a myriad of Professional Development days that have been piled on. At issue are “Power Mondays,” “Flex Wednesdays” and “Focus Days.” If you’re unfamiliar with these terms, suffice it to say that all of these interruptions to the steady flow of the educational process are focused on teacher development . . .not student development.


Q: Is there any good news?

A: Yes! There are at least 3 positive developments at this point:

1) At the May Board meeting, Board member Janice Mills spoke up and asked, in essence, what affect this calendar and all the interruptions for Professional Development would have on the education of our children. Eureka! This might seem like an obvious question, but it’s something that has been almost totally absent in any discussion of the calendar over the past several months. Much has been discussed about what the Principals want, what the contract with the Teacher’s Union requires, how we need to comply with State laws, but almost no meaningful discussion has taken place about how to most effectively use the calendar and the classroom time we already have to educate our children. This is a major turning point!

2) The upcoming School Board election this Fall will feature a challenger in Brentwood (6th district) whose views mirror the basic principles of CCC. Terry Leve is a WCS parent and a former teacher who has publicly addressed the School Board on more than one occasion advocating positions in line with those of CCC. A formal announcement of CCC’s endorsement of Mr. Leve will follow in a few days.

3) There is a growing national trend by state legislatures to reign in “out of control” School Boards who have increasingly encroached on the time that belongs to parents and their children. Although local advocates of the “balanced calendar” tout this change as a new, innovative educational style, the reality is that this is a failed fad. Increasingly, states that have already gone down this path are passing laws that set specific parameters for school calendars to bring some sanity back to this issue. Watch for an in-depth report on this from CCC member Greg Weaver in a couple of days.


In conclusion: This is a time of great opportunity for those who support a traditional school calendar. While there are still those in leadership positions who are focusing on the wrong things, the backlash from the “balanced calendar” debacle has shed new light on how we’re managing time in our schools. CCC will continue to monitor and report.

More real life stories

In a continued effort to illustrate the "real life" impact that a "balanced" calendar has on families, we present the following from Susan Banner, a Williamson County parent:

The “balanced” (year round) school calendar negatively affects families in numerous ways. For my family, these are the two most pressing reasons:

• Relentless Heat – On August 18, 2005 my daughter was one of five FHS band students who collapsed from heat exhaustion and needed ambulance transportation to the ER. It was the most fearful day of my life. Why would anyone who claims to have our students’ best interest at heart vote to extend the number of high-heat days for our athletes and band students? This reason alone should cause the WCS board to shout down the proponents of this ridiculous plan.

• Enrichment opportunities – Williamson County is not on an island; our children, especially high school students, attend out-of-area programs that are based on a traditional school calendar. As young people grow they seek the company of their peers, and they need opportunities outside of the classroom. Many programs are offered one time on a specific date. For example, some of the Governor’s School sessions in Tennessee are four to six weeks long.

Parents of elementary students are now planning summers with soccer camps and Disney vacations. But as their children age, they will realize that teens need longer summers for employment, mission trips, academic enrichment, etc. If your child is still too young for you to see around the corner, or if you are undecided on the balanced calendar, won’t you please accept the counsel of the many parents of high school students who have traveled farther down the road that you will soon travel?

The 2007-2008 Calendar

We've removed all draft calendars from the web site since they were focused on the 2006-2007 school year. That year's calendar was fixed at last month's School Board meeting.

But the Board began considering the 2007-2008 school year at last night's working session. They gave guidance to Dr. David Heath, WCS deputy director and member of the WCS calendar committee. Just as we suspected, "calendar creep" has apparently begun. The start date discussed last night was Aug. 13, 2007, two days earlier than the present year and one day earlier than the 06-07 year. As we've said before, beware the trend of slicing down the summer, one day at a time.

For a reason we've not yet discerned, there was discussion last night about making the fall break a full week. This was out of left field. Our position is unchanged, as stated in our core principles:

3. We believe that the school year should begin as late in the summer as possible to meet the requirements mandated by the state. The calendar's main priority should be to maximize the number of intact, contiguous weeks of classroom instruction per term. Teachers have told us time after time that maximizing the number of complete, five-day weeks of instruction is the best way to improve students' performance. Therefore, once students report for classes at the beginning of the year, non-class days should be held to an absolute minimum.

The present tradition of going to class only the first two days of Thanksgiving week will almost certainly remain intact on the WCS calendar, as it does on our own proposal.

Once again, we have constructed a proposal for the fall of 2007.

We mirrored the present school year as closely as possible. The first class day is Wednesday, Aug. 15; the first semester ends Dec. 20. WCS Director Rebecca Sharber told one of our members today that the habit of always starting on a Monday (no matter how early it pushes the start date) is not a request from her office.

Non-class days are noted on the calendar, so take a look!

Why act on bad information?

Keeping in mind what has been said by various School Board members in the press, Board meetings and conversations with their constituents, the Citizens Calendar Committee e-mailed the following letter to all 12 Board members today. We refer in it to Dr. David Carleton's excellent analysis of the flaws of the phone survey which was conducted last December. Dr. Carleton is a professor of Political Science at MTSU.

Dear School Board member,

By now you should have received the packets we sent to each of you via FedEx last week. We hope that you have had time to look over those materials and have found this information useful.

After January's work session and regularly scheduled Board meeting, we were under the impression that Board members were well aware of the deep flaws of the phone survey that was conducted regarding the "balanced" calendar. However, last weekend a member of the Citizens Calendar Committee was in conversation with a School Board member who said that he/she would support converting "clusters" of schools in Williamson County to the balanced calendar. The Board member said that the phone survey shows that the parents in certain parts of the county support the calendar.

We emphasize again that no such conclusions about what parents want may reasonably be drawn from the phone survey. Attached is a copy of our second Newsletter which was distributed this week. In this Newsletter is a point-by-point analysis of why this survey was fatally flawed.

At January's Board meeting, Director Sharber admitted that the survey did not measure up to dissertation standards, but that it was still "useful." We would ask, first, why did the Central Office conduct a survey knowing in advance that it was so flawed? And second, just how is a fatally flawed survey "useful?" Remember - "garbage in, garbage out." Suppose the IRS audited your tax return, admitted that their audit was flawed and error-ridden, but said it was still "useful," so they would charge you with tax fraud anyway. Would you accept that?

The results of the December phone survey should be disregarded altogether. We urge you to do so.

We'll see!

Wear red again this Thusday

This is a big week! The School Board will meet for a work session, THIS Thursday, Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. and the 2007-2008 calendar is definitely on the agenda.

Please come to the work session wearing red and "No Balance" buttons. We'll have more buttons available at the door.

The work session will take place in the County Administrative Complex in the Carolyn Campbell room, not the auditorium where it met last month. (The Campbell room is their regular room for work sessions.)

The Carolyn Campbell room is on the second floor. It would be best to come in through a front door, such as where you enter for license plates, and pass through security. The address is 1320 West Main St., Franklin. For a map click here.

While we were manning our kiosk at the Cool Springs Mall, one School Board member from Williamson County spoke at length with one of our CCC members. This Board member indicated that he thinks year-round schools are definitely the wave of the future and it is inevitable that the Williamson County school system would have to follow everybody else—perhaps adding a few days each year, but eventually we must follow everybody else.

Wrong! That will only be true if we allow Board members like this to hold sway over our entire county.

A few days ago, another School Board member had a conversation with another CCC member. This Board member indicated that he would fully support moving clusters of schools in the county to a year-round calendar next year. His reasoning? The absolutely worthless phone survey which almost everybody has discounted by now.

We may have gained a temporary reprieve for 2006-2007, but the same people who expressed interest in a year-round calendar for this coming year and still on the School Board and in the Central Office.

Please give us your support by wearing red to the School Board's work session Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex in the Carolyn Campbell room.

Traditional calendar is NOT a "farm calendar"

In an article about school calendars in the January 31 Tennessean, reporter Diane Long repeated a myth that we have often heard from the foes of the traditional school calendar.

The change [to a balanced calendar] would drop the traditional long stretch of summer vacation, a throwback to the days when children helped their families on the farm.

The Tennessean made the same error on December 17 and December 29. Anyone who has lived or worked on a farm, and I include myself in that group, knows that spring planting and fall harvest are the busiest times on a farm. The agrarian calendars of the past gave children long breaks in the spring and fall so they could help out on the farm. The "balanced" calendar more closely approximates the agrarian school calendars of the past. See here.

After 1950, as the manufacturing and service industries became more important to the U.S. economy than agriculture, the agrarian school calendar was abandoned in favor of the modern traditional calendar. If there is a "throwback" to the agrarian past, it is the balanced calendar.

We have discussed this issue before:

• Metro Nashville and Williamson County
• Tennessean repeats calendar myths
• The agrarian school calendar

The Citizens Calendar Committee's director, Bryce Inman, has written the Tennessean and explained why the traditional calendar is not an agrarian calendar.

Why does the Tennessean persist in getting it wrong? An editorial in the December 29 Tennessean endorsed the balanced calendar. Is the Tennessean so strongly biased in favor of the balanced calendar that it is willing to print incorrect information on page one, section A? Or are the reporters unwilling to do their homework and learn about the calendar?

We at the Citizens Calendar Committee prefer to discuss the issue based on hard facts. Let's hope that the Tennessean writers will do their homework next time.

Have you signed up for our newsletter?

If you haven't already signed up for the Citizens Calendar Committee Newsletter, you can do so by clicking here.

The Newsletter was created to help communicate with a rapidly expanding membership. Newsletters will be sent out periodically to keep people informed about new developments, upcoming meetings, and calendar information.

The Newsletter will also include perspectives from parents and students, as well as summaries of research studies on calendars and school performance. If there are issues you would like to see discussed, please let us know.

The first issue was sent out a few days ago but the next edition will be rolling out soon.

Please forward these newsletters to other parents, teachers, and concerned citizens who are interested in these school issues.

Real life stories

Here's a "real life" example of how a year-round calendar would have a negative impact on a students who use the summer months for life-building activities. This letter has been sent to Becky Sharber and Pat Anderson—the Hodgson's School Board representative from the 8th district. This letter is reprinted with their premission.

(SPECIAL NOTE: Although the year-round calendar was rejected for the 2006-2007 school year, at least one advocate on the School Board has already set in motion a plan that would introduce a year-round calendar in Williamson County by forcing 1-3 high schools in the southern part of our county—and the middle and elementary schools that feed into those high schools—onto this calendar as soon as the 2007-2008 school year.)


My wife and I have been closely following the debate over the calendar. We are in the eighth district.

1) We are adamantly OPPOSED to the "Balanced Calendar".

2) Our preference is to start school as late as possible in August, preferably August 21, but not before August 14. We could list 10's of cogent reasons why starting later is better for families and the community.

3) We were planning on sending our 14-year-old son to 9th grade at either Franklin HS or Brentwood HS this coming fall. If the balanced calendar is passed with school starting July 24th, we will NOT send him to public school. We know others that will opt for the private school option if the calendar starts early.

4) My wife and I have been swimming coaches for over 30 years and we are currently coaching some of the best swimmers in Williamson County. I was a USA Olympic Swim Coach in 1984. These dedicated young swimmers train 6 days per week, 48-49 weeks per year and the major meets for these swimmers are generally July 26 to middle of August. Starting school early would be a huge disadvantage for these future college scholarship athletes because they will be forced to get un-excused absences to attend Regional, Sectional, Zone, and/or National Championships.

5) We feel strongly that the proposal of the balanced calendar has been irresponsibly thrust on the citizens with virtually no education about the proposal and no input from the citizens or the businesses.

Sincerely,
Charlie and Amy Hodgson

Save Our Summers meme spreads

According to the Boston Globe, there is a growing trend of "Parents demanding that school be out for summer."

MIAMI -- The pressures of federally mandated exams have pushed public schools here and in several other states to begin classes weeks earlier than usual to squeeze in more days of instruction before the critical tests, sometimes striking August entirely from vacation calendars and devoting the month, traditionally left open for childhood leisure, to class time.

But a widespread backlash, led by disgruntled parents organized into loosely affiliated Save Our Summers groups across the country, is underway.

Legislators in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and Pennsylvania are weighing bills this year that would peg school start dates to Labor Day. North Carolina, Texas, Minnesota and Wisconsin passed similar measures in recent years.

Last August Dave Barry sent his daughter to start kindergarten in Miami-Dade, Fla., schools on Aug. 8. Here is some of what he wrote three days before:

When should the school year start?

A. Sometime around Sept. 1, when most of the United States of America has started school for many decades.

B. On Aug. 8 -- also known as ''smack dab in the middle of summer'' -- when the average Florida classroom is roughly the same temperature as a pizza oven.

If you answered ''A,'' you are correct. If you answered ''B,'' you are an official of Miami-Dade or Broward public schools. These officials have decided that our children need to start school on Monday, when children from normal places are vacationing with their families, or attending summer camp, or lying on the sofa picking their noses and playing video games, which is what God clearly intended early August to be used for.

Among the children who will be trudging into Miami-Dade schools on Monday is my 5-year-old daughter, who enters kindergarten this year. When my wife told me the date our daughter would start school, my fifth question was: "Why?"

(My first four questions, in order, were: ''Aug. 8?'' ''Did you say Aug. 8?'' ''You mean, like, the eighth day of AUGUST?'' "Are they INSANE??'')

Read the whole thing.

Balanced calendar is not a dead issue

Some of the feedback we have gotten from supporters in recent days indicates that many of those who opposed the balanced calendar with is for the last couple of months think that the calendar is a now dead issue and the campaign is now ended. After all, the School Board unanimously voted on Jan. 17 to adopt a traditional calendar for 2006-2007, didn't it?

Yes, it did. But the balanced calendar merely hibernates. It is not deceased.

At the Jan. 17 meeting, Board member Barry Watkins, the balanced calendar's greatest advocate, stated after the vote that he intended to raise the balanced calendar again for the 2007-2008 school year. Another Board member has told several of us that he intends to keep pushing for year-round school with the next school year.

There is broad agreement across the Board to set the 07-08 calendar before school is dismissed this May, probably much earlier than that. We expect to see again a push for the balanced calendar by Central Office to some degree as well.

We expect the calendar push for 07-08 by year-round calendar advocates will include one or both of the following:

• Place one to three high school "clusters" on a year-round calendar, probably one or all of Fairview, Page and Independence. Barry Watkins is already pushing for that to happen. He asked Director Sharber on Jan. 17 to provide him with cost data and has advised his constituents in electoral district 9 of that fact not long after the Jan. 17 meeting.
  
• "Calendar creep," which we covered here. Basically, it is a tactic by which the summer is shortened by a day or two here, a day or two there, until after a few years we discover that we've got a year-round calendar and wonder how it happened. It's the "boil a frog" technique or, as we wrote before, giving a mouse a cookie.

"Eternal vigilance," wrote Thomas Jefferson, " is the price of freedom." So, as we already have pointed out, the Citizens Calendar Committee remains in business.

The 2007-2008 calendar will be an agenda item at the Board's Feb. 9 work session. We'll post more information as the date draws nearer.

All-new Citizens Calendar Committee

In a little more than two weeks the School Board will meet for a work session at which time they will begin their first discussions about the make-up of the 2007-2008 calendar. Once again, ALL options are on the table for the next calendar . . .including a full-blown year-round calendar.

Due to our ever-growing membership and the immediacy of this next battle, the Citizens Calendar Committee has used the lull of these last several days to streamline our organization, formalize a structure and develop short-term and long-term strategies that will carry this group into the future for as long as a year-round calendar is being proposed as a viable option for our county.

Starting in the next few days, look for the following:

•Regular notification of important upcoming dates to watch
•Newsletters detailing the most recent “facts and fiction” about year-round schools
•Information about what your School Board member has been saying about the issue and how they've been voting
•What you can do to help preserve a traditional calendar for all of Williamson County

A hearty “thank you” to all of you who worked so hard to win the battle for the 2006-2007 calendar. Please join us as we continue our work on the next calendar.

Why CCC will continue to exist

The front page of the today’s (January 19) Williamson A.M. is a perfect illustration of why the Citizens Calendar Committee will meet this weekend to formalize its structure as an ongoing entity and develop its goals and strategies for the coming months—years if need be.

Everybody who saw the Tuesday night School Board meeting—either in person or on channel 3—saw a “Sea of Red,” as people who support a “traditional” calendar for Williamson County—and silently stated that position by wearing something red—packed a “standing room only” auditorium. Seated amidst that Sea of Red was a handful of “balanced” calendar advocates from Trinity Elementary School wearing blue shirts

So, when you open today at see the front fold of the WAM to see the story about Tuesday’s vote, what picture do you see? The tiny contingent of blue shirts, of course.

A couple months ago, when the Citizens Calendar Committee first got started, the press gave us a good deal of coverage and began doing their own investigative reporting into a proposed change that would drastically alter much of the fabric of Williamson County. A few weeks ago, The Tennessean—the parent publication of the Williamson A.M.—published an editorial strongly advocating year-round school. Whether by coincidence or not, the Williamson A.M.s coverage of the “balanced” calendar issue soon took a very different tone on the matter. While the reports continue to be fair in the portrayal of CCC’s statements and positions on the subject, there no longer seems to be much interest in delving into the truth and fiction about the year-round school movement.

Couple that with the fact that that our tax dollars are paying for a Central Office which uses is vast communications resources to promote a nearly one-sided “pro” year-round school stance, and leaves us with only a parents’ group like the Citizens Calendar Committee to advocate for the majority opinion in Williamson County which firmly believes that a “traditional” school calendar is by far the best choice for our students and the county as a whole.

CCC spokesman's comment to School Board last night

Here are the remarks made last night to the Williamson COunty School Board by Citizens Calendar Committee member Dr. Greg Weaver.

Good evening. My name is Greg Weaver. I am a resident of the second educational district of southern Williamson County and an Independence High School parent.

I am speaking tonight on behalf of the Citizens Calendar Committee, a grassroots organization dedicated to preserving the traditional school calendar. We ask that the board retain the traditional calendar for all Williamson County schools with a start date no earlier than August 14.

The burden of proof that our schools would be better off with a balanced calendar has not been met. Dr. Sharber has stated that, "There is no hard data that supports that achievement is increased by a balanced calendar." She has also acknowledged that the telephone poll conducted in early December would not hold up to scientific scrutiny. The results of this invalid poll should not be used to drive school district policy.

The national trend is away from year round school. After 40 years of focused efforts by proponents, no more than 4% of public school students are on a balanced calendar. Texas has been a leader of the year round school movement. The movement peaked in Texas in the 1996-97 school year when 359 schools were on the balanced calendar. (www.summermatters.com) Over 2/3 of those schools have since abandoned the calendar, and today only 102 of over 7,000 Texas schools are on this type of calendar. (www.NAYRE.org). Similar statistics are available for other states and school systems. The balanced calendar is not the wave of the future. It is, instead, a failed educational experiment and it is not necessary for us to repeat those mistakes here in Williamson County.

We on the Citizens Calendar Committee have spoken to hundreds of concerned citizens about the proposed balanced year round calendar. We have been amazed at the large number of different reasons cited by the citizens of Williamson County that the balanced calendar would be detrimental to our community. Almost every aspect of family life would be impacted. There would be significant effects on the local economy, other county institutions such as parks and recreation, and loss of learning opportunities ranging from summer jobs to college credit courses.

For instance, did you know that scholarships for swimmer athletes are awarded based on the student's performance at swim meets in July and August? Because they would be in school during these meets, Williamson County students would be excluded from this opportunity. I could list many other such examples.

The balanced year round calendar would harm our children, families, and community in many ways. As Dr. Sharber has pointed out, adopting two different calendars for the same school district would be very disruptive as well. The balanced calendar offers no substantial benefits. It should not be approved for any part of the school system. Please retain the traditional calendar for all Williamson County schools with a start date no earlier than August 14.

Terry Leve's remarks to the board

Terry Leve is a gentleman we met just this past Thursday evening at an impromptu meeting at Ravenswood High School. Following is the excellent speech he gave to the School Board during the "Public comments" portion of the School Board meeting Tuesday night.

Esteemed Members of the School Board:

As a parent of children at Kenrose, Woodland and Ravenwood, it is my firm opinion that abandoning a traditional school calendar is not in the best interest of students, teachers or families.

A “balanced” education includes myriad summer opportunities; yet, the proposed calendar leaves our students disadvantaged. In fact, some opportunities would be strictly denied all Williamson County children, such as participating in Tennessee’s Governor’s Schools. As to summer internships and jobs, a non-Williamson County student would have a decided advantage over our students due to the greater length of time such student would be available. The reasoning behind such a conclusion is that new opportunities require time to learn, and reducing time reduces effectiveness. Excellent academics from an excellent school system are sometimes not enough in the competitive university and scholarship environment of today. Extra-curricular activities and summer employment carry significant weight. The proposal to abandon the traditional calendar will deprive.

Many teachers seek summer employment to supplement their income. While teachers may not choose their vocation to become wealthy, we do not want to discourage good teachers from staying or dissuade good teachers from coming because their ability to earn is reduced by shortened summers. Dividing the lost summer month into two additional two week periods throughout the year does not help as it is unreasonable to believe that teachers could find two week employment twice annually. So, unless the Board is proposing to raise our taxes or cut other programs in order to give these teachers a raise commensurate with their lost income potential, our students are at risk. Second, excellent teachers continue their learning and add to their qualifications through summer education and training programs. The proposed calendar would deprive our teachers from participating, which in turn would reduce the quality of our teaching force.

Next, some of the families in this District need their children to work in order to help out or to help save for college or to help pay for extra-curricular activities. Still others believe it is helpful to raising a well rounded, responsible citizen. It is not for the District to deprive families of raising their children in the manner they think best or to second guess a family’s financial priorities.

So I ask:
Is there some study showing how test results have improved by this new proposal? No. NAEP Reading Exam and Stanford 9 test scores have shown across the board declines from non-traditional vs. traditional calendar districts of like size and like socio-economic demographics. See www.summermatters.com/.

Do long summers off cause our students to forget what they learned? No. According to the Bulletin of Educational Research, on average, students return in the Fall close to where they left off in the Spring. See www.auburn.edu/~enebasa/.

Is there a proven benefit from other school districts that implemented a non-traditional calendar? No. According to Billie Bussard, former editorial writer with The Florida Times-Union, in 37 states a total of 351 school districts have tried and rejected, while another 116 school districts have considered and rejected, non-traditional calendars. See www.summermatters.com/.

In closing, I note the results of the District’s survey: A majority of homes with students in Grades 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 oppose the proposed balanced calendar. A 50% favorable response for a change is not noted until you push down to the 3rd grade level! Thus, whatever preferences the few might have for change are overwhelmed by the aforementioned adverse impacts upon the clear majority of grade levels being taught.

Please do not abandon, rather, preserve and protect, our tried and proven traditional calendar.

Terry Leve

The Tennessean's coverage

The Tennessean's article about last night's Board meeting is here.

The article's subhead reads, "After months of debate, board passes a more traditional schedule." Sorry, no. There has not been "months" of debate. The public was shut out of the process; there would have been no debate about the issue at all unless parents and other residents had dynamically inserted themselves into the process.

Only by the most technical grammar, of parent activism beginning only in November, can one say there has been "months" of debate. But the Tennessean's subhead makes it sound as if this issue's discussion went on for many months. It did not. We've said it before: if we had not inserted ourselves into the issue (for parents were never invited), we'd all be reading this morning that the Board passed a year-round calendar for 2006-2007.

Discussion and THE VOTE

Board member Sina Miller was absent

Dr. Sharber:
A new calendar from the calendar committee starts on Aug. 14 and differs only in that there is a three-day fall break rather than two days, and it is in the beginning of a week rather than the end of the week. This may help keep football games atendance up.

Board member Bill Peach:
Questions about election days and students in the building.

Dr.Sharber:
The election commission has a legal right to use school buildings. We didn't make Nov.7 a no-class day because it is a Tuesday and we have little confidence that if the kids get Tuesday off that attendance the Monday would be very high.

Pat Anderson:
Sorry, I didn't catch most of her comments. Asked Dr.David Heath a question about conference days.

Dr. Heath:
Law requires one parent-teacher conference day per year, but it does not have to be a whole day. We have a lot of flexibility on how to do it.

Pat Anderson:
Moves to change two days of fall break from October 10-11 to 6-7 November.

Then some discussion about Pat's motion. Ralph Ringstaff wants to move all three days to November, 6-8 Nov. Dr. Sharber speaks against the motion. Says the schools can be safe for students on election day (applause from the gallery).

The motion failed.

Mari Weller:
Makes a motion to move two days of the three-day fall break to other dates. Motion failed.

Gary Anderson (chair):
We are back to the original calendar as proposed (that is, the start date of Aug. 14).

Barry Watkins:
Dislikes that of the two nine-week fall terms, one term has 39 class days and the other 47 days. Makes motion to move some break days and admin days to make more even the number of days per nine-week term.

Ed Bailey:
Unsure that it's a good idea to have a fall break before the end of a nine-week grading period.

Dr. Sharber:
End the first nine-week period of Oct. 12?

Dr. Heath:
That would make the first term 43 days and the second term 44 days.

Barry Watkins:
Restates his motion thus: End the first nine weeks Oct. 12. Make Fall break be Friday, Oct. 13 and Monday-Tuesday Oct. 16-17.

Dr. Sharber:
Recommends approval.

The motion passed unanimously.

Gary Anderson:
Asks David Heath about focus days.

Dr. Heath:
Focus days don't affect the beginning or end of the school year. Whether there are focus days in the calendar is a separate question from the calendar itself.

Gary Anderson:
This topic will go on the agenda for the February work session.

Barry Watkins:
Asks WCS to report on financial implications of a paid professional development days.

THE VOTE:
The traditional calendar passes 11-0.

Barry Watkins:
Wants to examine putting some clusters on a "balanced" calendar for 2007-2008.

Public commentary

First of four speakers of the public is Terry Leve, speaking in favor of keeping the traditional calendar. Expressing concerns about how a shortened summer would minimize summer enrichment for the school children. Also less summer employment for teachers and for kids. All respondents in the phone survey in grades 6-12 were strongly in favor of traditional calendar.

Next is Willie Dickerson, principal of Franklin High School. She is not speaking on the calendar, but on the new construction for Franklin HS; the public open house is this Sunday 1-4 p.m.

Next is Greg Weaver, a member of our steering committee. Asks for school start date no later than Aug. 14, 2006.

Finakd soeaker is Ddr. David Carleton, also a member of our steerin committee.

The meeting is under way

In case you did not know, the School Board meeting is broadcast live on Cable 3. It has just started.