Published Wednesday, November 12, 2008
When should school start next year?
The Newnan Times-Herald
The Coweta County Board of Education has posted online three optional calendars for the 2009-2010 and 2020-2011 school years for viewing and comment by the public.
At Tuesday's school board meeting, Superintendent Blake Bass said the first proposal reflects a school year that begins later in August than usual.
"You sometimes hear that parents like to see that," he said.
The first proposal has the 2009-2010 school year beginning Aug. 19 and ending June 4. The 2010-2011 proposed school year would begin Aug. 16 and end June 3.
The second calendar option is similar to this year's calendar. The 2009 school year would begin on Aug. 10 and end May 28. The 2010 school year would begin Aug. 6 and end on May 27.
The third calendar proposal is similar, except it includes a school holiday on the Monday after a Friday teacher work day in October.
"Some teachers have requested that at that nine-week break. That's a long stretch, so we're putting that out there," he said.
The calendars include 10 teacher work days and from 25 to 29 school holidays including week-long Thanksgiving and April spring breaks and two weeks for the Christmas break. The mid-winter breaks in February vary from three days to a full week.
The calendars will be posted on the school system's Web site for public input, which will be taken into consideration when the board meets to adopt the two calendars at its Dec. 9 meeting. The school system uses Zoomerang, an online survey tool, to collect and evaluate the opinions and suggestions. A link will be available to view each proposal and another link for parents to send their preferences or suggestions to the school board.
The board, which adopts the calendars every two years, has to follow certain requirements in developing them. Students must attend 180 days and teachers must work 190 days. The school year must end on a Friday. Because of block scheduling at the high school level and end-of-course testing at all grade levels, the first semester must be completed before Christmas.
On the web: http://www.coweta.k12.ga.us/calendar/calendars.html
