I have heard from many people about this year's calendar and not starting Winter Recess until after school on Friday, December 23. The Calendar Policy and the School Board preference that holiday breaks on both traditional and year round calendars align dictate how the Calendar Committee designs each calendar. The time to be watching out for Winter Recess is the October before (i.e. October 2011 for Winter Recess 2012-13).
Four JEA members serve on the Calendar Committee, which also has 10 parents, 4 administrators, and 3 classified members. The JEA members on the committee are Bev Griffith - Literacy Specialist representing year round, Liz Taylor - Elk Meadows representing traditional elementary, Kathy Bekkemellom - South Hills representing middle school, and Jack Duffy - West Jordan High representing high school. You can provide them with feedback, but they are only 4 of 21 votes on the committee. Having attended a couple of meetings, I can tell you that what parents want is a key part. I heard one parent say that traditional cannot start any earlier in August, because "August has the best boating weather".
Scroll toward the bottom of the calendar page to see the calendars for the 2012-2013 school year. The Calendar Committee recommended a traditional calendar with a 3-day Thanksgiving Recess for 2012-2013, which was approved. The Board decided to try it and watch attendance data to see about changing the policy, which currently states that "Thanksgiving Recess shall be two (2) days, Thanksgiving Day (Thursday) and Friday." This is the first experiment on not aligning a holiday break between traditional and year round. The reason Winter Recess is so short this year has to do with Christmas falling on a Sunday and aligning the break between the calendars. Due to restrictions on year round, it is sometimes difficult to find enough school days making Winter Recess as short as possible.
The School Board would need to change their preference on aligning holiday breaks in order for there to ever be a 2-week Winter Recess or a 1-week Spring Recess on traditional. I know the week long Spring Recess was discussed for 2012-2013, but the majority of parents preferred their children be out of school as close to the beginning of June as possible.
If you are concerned about the Winter Recess, please contact the JEA members on the Calendar Committee about your desires. You also need to watch for updates and School Board meeting minutes so you can have some influence on the 2013-2014 Winter Recess dates. Tentative calendars are also on the calendar page at the very bottom.
Showing posts with label Calendar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Calendar. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Calendar Development
At the School Board Study Session on Tuesday, Sherry Devenberg presented a proposed calendar which includes a 3-day Thanksgiving Break for traditional and year round schedules. The School Board is open to this as well as a possibility of a week-long Spring Break for traditional. The Calendar Committee will continue to work on options to present to the School Board for their approval.
Friday, November 19, 2010
November DAC
The District Advisory Committee met yesterday afternoon. We discussed principals who are not following the newly negotiated item about Grade Transmittal Days being optional, and that teachers will complete their grades on time, either prior to or on that day.
High school Parent Teacher Conferences were discussed. This item will go to the new committee that will begin meeting in January to look at possibly restructuring to make better use of time.
AP funding was addressed. Funding is based on the number of students who passed the tests the previous year. However, the amount of funding changes from year to year. This is very difficult to predict.
Suspensions in 9th-12th grade show on the transcript, which is a permanent document. Once information is on a transcript, it cannot be changed.
The time to administer the PLAN test in middle and high schools was a problem. They would like a late start, but the logistics of transportation make this difficult. Questions need to be directed to Clyde Mason.
A question about our calendared holiday breaks not matching surrounding districts was brought up. We have year round schools, and try to match our traditional and year round holiday breaks as closely as possible. This makes adding days to Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring breaks nearly impossible. Anyone who has served on the Calendar Committee recognizes this.
Finally, we reviewed some recently revised policies.
High school Parent Teacher Conferences were discussed. This item will go to the new committee that will begin meeting in January to look at possibly restructuring to make better use of time.
AP funding was addressed. Funding is based on the number of students who passed the tests the previous year. However, the amount of funding changes from year to year. This is very difficult to predict.
Suspensions in 9th-12th grade show on the transcript, which is a permanent document. Once information is on a transcript, it cannot be changed.
The time to administer the PLAN test in middle and high schools was a problem. They would like a late start, but the logistics of transportation make this difficult. Questions need to be directed to Clyde Mason.
A question about our calendared holiday breaks not matching surrounding districts was brought up. We have year round schools, and try to match our traditional and year round holiday breaks as closely as possible. This makes adding days to Thanksgiving, Winter, or Spring breaks nearly impossible. Anyone who has served on the Calendar Committee recognizes this.
Finally, we reviewed some recently revised policies.
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