Schools

School Calendar Debate Rages On at PAUSD Board Meeting

With the final vote on a new school calendar that puts first-semester finals in December for school years 2012-13 and beyond scheduled for May 10, the debate at Tuesday night's school board meeting was a long and contentious one.

Old arguments were once again brought to the table Tuesday night when the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education revisited the issue of changing future school calendars to move first-semester finals to December, before winter break. Though board members previously to keep next year’s calendar the same as this year’s, a vote has been scheduled for May 10 on whether to approve pre-break finals for school years 2012-13 and beyond.

The board appeared to enter the night’s discussion of the issue knowing it was up for a fight, from both sides—those who support pre-break finals, and those who don’t.

“We’re always going to get both—there’s no school calendar that’s going to satisfy everybody,” said Scott Bowers, a PAUSD associate superintendent who leads the calendar committee, at the beginning of the night.

Find out what's happening in Palo Altowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“There’s a saying in Palo Alto that we can do anything, and anything is possible—but in this issue, I don’t think we can [make everyone happy],” said Kevin Skelly, PAUSD superintendent.

The idea of pre-break finals was originally brought to the school board in September and was tensely debated for months by board members, parents, students and administrators, eventually leading the school board on Dec. 7 to approve a rollover calendar—meaning, the same type of calendar as in the current year. Board members said the reason for the decision to approve the rollover calendar was so they could spend a few months gathering data in the district and community before revisiting the idea for school years 2012-13 and 2013-14 at the end of the year.

Find out what's happening in Palo Altowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

That time is now—school calendars with pre-break finals for years 2012-13 and beyond will be voted on by the board on May 10. Debates over the issue began at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, as a record number of community members showed up, and a whopping 45 comment cards were filled out by those who wished to address the board.

Since Dec. 7, Bowers and the calendar committee have been working to gauge opinions on changing the calendar across the district and community. On Tuesday night, Bowers presented a report of that data to the board, along with the recommendation that the board approve a calendar with pre-break finals for school years 2012-13 and 2013-14.

The data included the results of an online survey written by the calendar committee. Invitations to take the survey were sent to all district families and the staff members of all elementary, middle and high schools in the district who had email addresses on file with the district. Approximately 2,700 parents, 430 high school students, 165 high school staff members and 310 elementary and middle school staff members accepted the invitation and took the survey.

In the survey, the key question was, if the survey-taker was in control of the school calendar, would he or she schedule finals before winter break or after, or if he or she had no opinion on the matter.

Interestingly, 70 percent of high school students and 66 percent of parents who answered the question on the survey indicated they would schedule first-semester finals before winter break, if they were in control.

However, in other questions on the survey, the number of supporters for pre-break finals fell.

When qualifiers were added to the question, support for pre-break finals went down. For example, the number who supported pre-break finals if it meant the school year started as much as five to six days earlier in August was only 42.6 of parents and 41.9 percent of students.

“It is true that support for moving the school start date did not line up with the number who support pre-break finals,” Bowers acknowledged.

However, it is of note that the proposed calendars presented by the calendar committee to the school board Tuesday night had school start dates that were actually between eight and 13 days earlier than usual. The current calendar system typically puts the first day of school between Aug. 24-28; however, the proposed calendars introduced at Tuesday’s school board meeting included a first day of school on Aug. 16, 2012, and also on Aug. 15, 2013.

Several parents who addressed the board at Tuesday’s meeting criticized the board over that discrepancy.

Leda Krakirian, a parent to a child at Walter Hays Elementary and both a sophomore and senior at Paly, said, “The question in your survey that says, ‘I support a school start date that is five to six days earlier’ is dishonest. I hope we all notice that the difference between Aug. 15 or 16, and Aug. 28, is more than five days.”

Another parent echoed the sentiment, and said, “It’s really deceptive that you’re asking for just a few days. This early start date is really a major change.”

In general, comments fell pretty evenly on both sides of the issue throughout the evening.

Many of those against pre-break finals said that cramming finals in during the month of December piles stress on top of stress for students. The month of December is often jam-packed with not only schoolwork but also performances for students involved in the arts and competitions for students in sports. For seniors, there is also the added stress of completing college applications in time—while some colleges have deadlines in November or later in January, several top schools that many Palo Alto students set their sights on have deadlines that fall between Dec. 31 and Jan. 3.

Yuny Jun, a parent with a sophomore and a senior at Paly, said, “Moving finals to two weeks before college applications are due is a thoughtless move that makes the amount of stress on our seniors twice as great.”

However, one high school senior who spoke at the meeting described having just finished the college application period a few months ago and said that though it was a stressful time, she still supports the notion of pre-break finals.

“If students want to procrastinate, that’s on them,” she said, and further explained that with pre-break finals, a schoolwork-free winter break would allow students to devote completely to finishing college applications.

Additional research by the calendar committee over the past few months included meetings between the committee and teachers of various subjects at district schools.

Among high school staff, the issue appears to be semester lengths. While the majority of courses at and high schools are year-long, there are several courses that are semester-long, particularly English and social studies courses. When it comes to semester-long courses, many teachers and administrators are concerned that students who take the courses in the first semester would be at a significant disadvantage, with less instructional days to learn the material.

Results of the district survey indicated that 74 percent of high school staff said they would schedule first-semester finals before winter break if given control over the calendar—yet that number fell to 43.5 percent if it meant the number of days in each semester would vary by up to 10 days.

Despite those survey results, several teachers spoke out in favor of pre-break finals at the board meeting, citing the need for a true “work-free break” over the winter holidays not only for the students, but also for teachers who could use the winter break to have more time to prepare lessons for the second semester, which they said would ultimately benefit the students as well.

Rachel Garcia, a math teacher at Gunn, said she was previously working in the Morgan Hill Unified School District when that district made the switch to pre-break finals, and that it was a tremendously positive experience.

“I was there through the whole transition, and I can’t describe in words what that kind of break is like,” she said. “It’s so positive and so restful. If you haven’t had that experience, you don’t know what it’s like. It’s so rejuvenating.”

Jordan Huizing, an English teacher at Gunn, said all arguments made in favor of pre-break finals are true for the teachers, too—they need that break as well. She said that, with the current calendar, she typically has just three to five days to finish grading papers from the first semester and plan an entire semester’s worth of lessons plans for the second semester. By finishing the first semester in December, she would have two full weeks to prepare for the second semester, which she said would be extremely helpful, and beneficial to her students.

Huizing also said that taking a break in the middle of a book being read by her English class to have two weeks off in December, makes it extremely hard to come back to the book in January. She said she typically ends up spending additional time reminding her students what they were discussing and learning before the break and where they left off in the book, with the current calendar.

Other parents against the idea of pre-break finals disputed conclusions board members drew from the survey data.

One local parent, Lauren Janov, said that finals in January actually helps reduce stress on high school students, whereas other parents say it is pre-break finals that will achieve that.

Janov criticized the school district for leaving the results of certain survey questions out of the board’s packet, which is distributed to the board and community ahead of meetings, for review.

The main question Janov pointed out as being left out of the packet, asked students how much time, on average, they spend on schoolwork over winter break with the current calendar, which puts final exams in January.

“The median amount of time students said they spent on schoolwork over winter break is four hours. That’s the amount we’re debating here—four hours over 16 days,” Janov pointed out. “And the question that wasn’t included on the survey, that the PTA wanted asked but was omitted, is, did they mind doing that work over the break?” she said.

Janov went on to argue that many students actually welcome having the extra time over winter break to catch up on schoolwork they may have fallen behind in earlier in the semester—which would not be possible if the semester ended before the break—and to get a jumpstart on studying for finals, so that less cramming is needed in January before exams.

Once all audience members had spoken their piece, board members had the chance to comment on the issue and ask questions of the calendar committee.

Board member Dana Tom said, "I continue to strongly support finals before winter break. Will this solve the problem of over-stressed students? No. Is there a perfect calendar without any downsides? No. Do I think this is the right move in the right direction for our students? Absolutely. I think it will greatly benefit many of our high school students."

Tom said that all the comments from the public present “a clear list of pros and cons,” but he added that, should the new calendar be approved, the district will have a full year to prepare itself for the inevitable changes.

“I’m not prepared to say whether I will vote in support of this or not,” board vice-president Camille Townsend said. “I can see some clear issues here.”

Townsend said the crux of the issue is that it appears a majority of people are in favor of pre-break finals in general, but when one factors in all the “trade-offs” such as an earlier school start date and conflicts with extra-curricular activities and college applications, is it still in everyone’s best interest?

The next meeting of the school board will take place on May 10, when the board is expected to vote on the calendars for 2012-13 and 2013-14.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here