Earlier start to school year eyed

Stafford County, Va. – Stafford school officials want to build more instructional time into their yearly calendar.  

They’ll ask parents how they should do it during their next regularly scheduled meeting Aug. 10.

“There are a lot of options being talked about right now, from changing our spring break, which is traditionally the week after the Easter holiday, to the week or two weeks before Easter, to maintaining Veteran’s Day as a holiday or use it as an instructional day where we talk and teach about the history of the day” said Stafford County School Board Chairman Dana Reinboldt.

One popular idea is to start school one week earlier, before Labor Day, changing the current schedule that has students returning to class after the end-of-summer holiday.

School administrators have called for the change following last year’s wicked winter weather that left students out of classrooms for weeks.

Despite the lost instructional time, educators still had to prepare students for Virginia Standards of Learning exams and SATs, as test dates for those exams didn’t change because of the record snows, said Reinboldt.

An earlier start to the school year would allow students more classroom time before winter weather sets into the region.

While parents will have the opportunity to speak about the proposed calendar changes at the meeting, and can e-mail school board representatives thier thoughts on the proposed changes, officials know starting the school year earlier will pose problems for some families.

“People tend to travel later on in the summer, during the week before Labor Day because hotel and travel rates are cheaper. Teens also have summer jobs that might conflict with an earlier start date,” said Reinboldt.

School administrators have pushed the idea of starting earlier, but there is no evidence that shows children do better academically if the school year starts before Labor Day, said Reinboldt.

The proposed calendar changes are expected to be released at the Aug. 10. The board will is expected to vote on the changes in early September, said Reinboldt.

Any approved changes would not take affect until September 2011.

The talk of calendar changes comes as the school officials are looking for a new superintendent to lead the school system.

A special closed-door session meeting of the school board will be held today to discuss who the next the next controller will be.

The board is not expected to approve the new superintendent Tuesday, said Reinboldt.