School Committee Chooses First Day of School for 2011

After weighing whether to start the 2011-2012 school year before or after Labor Day weekend, the School Committee last night ultimately voted to approve a calendar with an earlier start date.

School will begin in fall 2011 with a half day for kindergarten through grade six, plus all new students, and a full day for ninth graders, on Tuesday, Aug. 30. Wednesday, Aug. 31 is a full day for students in grades one to 12, and a half day for kindergartners.

The school year will end next on June 15, 2012, if no snow days are needed, or could stretch until June 22 depending on the number of days school is cancelled in winter.

The calendar for the upcoming, 2010-2011, school year has a similar pre-Labor Day start day, with school beginning Tuesday, Aug. 31 as a half day for kindergarten through grade six and all new students, plus a full day for ninth graders.

Wednesday, Sept.1 is a full day for grades one to 12, and a half day for kindergarten. There will be no school Friday, Sept. 3 or Monday, Sept. 6 for the Labor Day holiday. The upcoming school year calendar was approved by the committee in June 2009. 

Discussion on the 2011-2012 school calendar centered last night on parent and teacher feedback given by e-mail prior to the meeting, and whether an earlier or later start date would be better for students, parents and teachers.

Superintendent Paul Ash said he feared that a post-Labor Day start could stretch the end of the school year into late June – or even early July – if a snowy winter necessitated the use of five snow days.

He also noted that end-of-the-year professional development time could be lost if a lot of snow days were needed – which wouldn't be known until the end of winter.

"Even with five snow days, if we start before [Labor Day] we can still have professional development," he said. "If we don't start until after, we don't know until after winter."

Ash also said the teachers' recommendation to start before Labor Day should also be weighed, as 70 percent surveyed said they favored a pre-Labor Day start.

Member Jessie Steigerwald said she was inclined to favor a post-Labor Day start because out of the 387 parents who e-mailed comments to school officials, 277 preferred the later start.

Steigerwald said the later start would give families more time together, and that many parents said they didn't see an advantage to their children starting school earlier. She also said it might be less stressful for students to not begin school only to enter into a four-day Labor Day weekend starting Friday, Sept. 2.

"I think it's very important what we do in terms of student stress," Steigerwald said.

Member Margaret Coppe said she favored a pre-Labor Day start, saying the later school goes in June, the less productive classes become as the year winds down. Some parents also pull their children out of school for vacations in the final days, of the year she said.

Member Mary Ann Stewart said deciding was a tough call as parents and teachers felt differently on the issue.

The committee voted 3-2 in favor of the pre-Labor Day start, with Steigerwald and Rodney Cole opposed.

In other business, the committee elected officers last night, voting for Cole to take over for Coppe as president, and for Stewart to become vice president.

The committee also heard a final report from the mathematics curriculum review committee and was given an update on the third year of a science curriculum review.

Members also voted to approve the Estabrook PTA's request to buy tables and a bench for the new playground at the school, and approved new rates for school facility rentals.

The committee will next meet again at the start of the school year.