Westport parents asked the Board of Education tonight to reconsider its vote on the school calendar for the next two years because they did not know the matter was on the Jan. 8 agenda.
Board of Education Chairwoman Mary Parmelee, however, said she is not inclined to bring the matter back.
At the Jan. 8 meeting, the board voted to start school for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 years on the Wednesday before Labor Day. The school year the last few years has started on the Tuesday following Labor Day.
Nancy Yates, a Silver Brook Road parent, tonight submitted 60 e-mails she received since 11 p.m. Monday night from parents who did not know the matter was on the Jan. 8 agenda for a vote.
Additionally, about 150 Staples High School students are organizing to ask the board to reconsider its vote, she said.
Yates said she is not laying blame on anyone for parents not knowing about the item being on the agenda.
Parents have typically relied on the PTA Council to relay information that is important to parents, she said.
The deadlines for the December and January newsletters, which includes a column on board activities, was before the Dec. 11 session when the board first discussed the calendar proposals, Yates said.
She said parents want the board to consider readdressing the issue since there has been little parent input.
“You have made a decision that affects our family lives without input from parents,” she said. “This is something that hit us all close to home.”
Board Chairman Mary Parmelee said she would let the board decide if the matter should be brought forward again, but she was not inclined to do so.
The board also could not add the matter to its agenda tonight because it is a special meeting, she said.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, items cannot be added to the agenda if it is a special meeting. Items can be added at regular meetings with a two-thirds vote.
The proposals for the calendar were on the school Web site since before the Dec. 11 meeting, she said, and it was also addressed in the local press.
While December was a busy month because of the holidays, she said, business did go on with the local government, including several important Representative Town Meeting votes such as the new teacher contract.
Parmelee said she knows of many parents who rely on the vote to make vacation plans.
Those parents will call the day after the calendar is approved, she said, so they can book their vacations.
“I am not inclined to take this up again because it would hurt the people who rely on our noticed and published vote,” she said.
Or you could just skip the first day(s) of school. It’s not optimal to start when it’s starting, but it’s not worth cancelling anything either.
I am in favor of a post Labor Day school start. All the parents I’ve talked with agree. What is the Board’s reason for starting before Labor Day?
While some familes will be put in the position of skipping the first three days of school based on the schedule, I do not see this as a vaild option.
I don’t see it as a valid option either. I will have 2 children at the high school level and missing school is not in their best interests.
In 2008, Labor day is Monday the first.
Their is no reason why school should start before labor day.
It appears this decision was reached with little public input.
When I ran for Board of Education, this was an issue. It appears while a few years has passed this problem (Lack of public input) remains.
Hiding behind the reason the noticed was published on the board web site in December and then little reaction is not a reason to pass the calendar the way it was.
It is within the power of the board to reconsider this vote. Who would it hurt to start after labor day.
Anyone who has made vacations plans based on the recently approved schedule would not be hurt as their plans finish before labor day.
Personally if this schedule remains as published my family will need to cancel a vacation we had planned.
The option to take this vacation earlier in the summer does not exist.
It would make more sense for everyone if the Board would adopt a standard rule to use when setting the calendar
Here is one thought.
If labor day falls on Sept 4 or before. 1st,2nd or 3rd
School would always start after Labor day
If labor day falls on Sept 5, 6, or 7th school would start the Wednesday before labor day
This way every year people would know when school starts and we don’t need to run into summer planning issues.
Many families do plan vacations around the end of the summer and value the extra day that Labor Day provides. Plus, Labor Day is a logical calendar point and ingrained psychological “marker” for us to turn our orientation from summer towards fall.
Our children and our family as a whole valued those extra few days of summer in the years when our kids were in school. We planned many family vacation trips around that point in time. These vacations really meant a lot to us all. Obviously, we are not the only ones.
I sincerely hope that the Board of Education will reconsider and find a way to augment, in this small but significant way, the kind of time that families may share together.
Let’s face it: Not only summer, but also those special and formative years before our children leave the nest, all fly by too irretrievably fast.
Judy Starr
RTM District 1
Just an observation here: the timing thing cuts both ways. Some families plan things for June, too. And some things start in June because the vast marjority of school systems finish their years earlier than we do. In our family, we’ve had to make hard choices between the last few days of school and a week of hugely enriching music camp. Not a fun choice to have to make, and the kids lose something either way. The BOE, I’m sure, struggles with this, and is trying to balance a lot of competing interests, including the state-mandated length of the school year. And they’ll never satisfy everyone. I give them credit for publishing the calendar in advance so folks can at least make informed decisions.
If we’d do one spring break instead of two, we could have a post-Labor Day start AND an earlier summer break. Just a thought.
Our ski vacations are more like the five of us jammed into one room somewhere in Vermont – giving new meaning to family togetherness! But that togetherness – whenever/wherever – is really the point of all these discussions. Dr. Landon’s holiday message stated that the school system is
There is an urban legend that after Westport had a couple of years of March-only breaks, we went back to Feb & April because the Supt at the time (not Landon) liked to ski.
It would suffice for me. My understanding – which could be wrong – is that teachers prefer the two breaks.
Having watched this debate for 12 years now, my experience is that this is an entirely moot discussion. As with most other matters, the school board does exactly what they want, regardless of public input.
Starting before Labor Day…or after Labor Day…will both occur in most parents’ lifetime in the Westport schools. Post-Labor Day starts, however, usually happen only when there’s some kind of school construction project going on and the extra week is needed for the work to be finished.
A good friend of mine was on the school calendar committee a few years back. She volunteered with all good intentions. As a working parent, she was in favor of only one second-semester vacation week. Her experience was that the committee was stacked with teachers and administrators who favored two vacations…and that her presence, her input, her vote…was meaningless. Two weeks off during second semester was a predetermined outcome.
The teachers and administrators want regular weeks off…at Christmas/New Year…in February…and in April. Wouldn’t you, if you had tenure? The school nurses claim that in the years with only a March vacation week, the flu hits epidemic proportions around President’s day…so having a vacation that week is actually good for disease control. (Never mind that the kids get sick anyway…during the vacation week…not on the school’s watch.)
It’s always interesting to me to see parents who haven’t been through this before begin the age-old debate and think they it will lead somewhere.
This is not a democratic process.
very interesting. I spoke with someone last night that was previously on the school calendar committee and she echoed the same sentiments.
I am finding in my experience that most matters are not open for debate.
Having had children in the Westport schools for some 13 years now, and having been very much involved in working for those schools, I am not among those parents whom Ms. Weintraub refers to as not having “been through this before.” But hope springs eternal! At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Dr. Landon’s holiday message stated that the school system is
I second Mr. Bruce. I actually believe the Board of Ed is as open as the community wants it to be.
* Their agendas are regularly posted on the town
I for one do not wish to try this.
It’s a been there, done that and no matter how it is presented does not make a lot of sense.
Labor day in 2008 is the First of the month.
Labor Day is a logical calendar point for the end of summer.
If we were a farming community where the crops needed to come out of the ground then yes, but we are not.
Many working families do not have a option when to take vacation, and there are companies where the last two weeks of August is when vacations must be taken.
I am fortunate and this is not my case, but I still will need to cancel plans that have been in place for a year.
There will be those families that will choose to have their children miss the first three days of school. We are not one of them.
We are new to town. Our old town’s policy was stated as follows:
Academic Year Start Dates for Students—2005-2014
By policy of the School Committee, in any given year the start day of school for students will be determined on the basis of the date of Labor Day. When Labor Day occurs on September 1, 2, or 3, the first day of school for students will be on the Tuesday after Labor Day. When Labor Day occurs on September 4, 5, 6, or 7, the first day of school for students will be the Wednesday preceding Labor Day.
Voted by the School Committee December 16, 2003
The first day of school for students will be:
2005 – Wednesday, August 31
2006 – Wednesday, August 30
2007 – Tuesday, September 4
2008 – Tuesday, September 2
2009 – Wednesday, September 2
2010 – Wednesday, September 1
2011 – Wednesday, August 31
2012 – Tuesday, September 4
2013 – Tuesday, September 3
2014 – Tuesday, September 2
This idea was raised earlier; I think it makes sense and hope the Board reconsiders.