Stephens Co. School Calendar Approved

The Stephens County Board of Education approves the 2016-2017 school calendar.

Tuesday, the board approved a 2016-2017 school calendar that has students starting on August 4 and going for 180 days.

An initial motion to approve the calendar as presented failed after it ended in a 3-3 tie, with Tony Crunkleton, Jim Bellamy, and Jim Ledford voting in opposition; while Jeff Webb, Rod Moore, and David Fricks voted for the motion.

Moore said it is a tough situation, noting that an early August start is preferred by the high school.

“I talked to educators at the high school,” said Moore. “They are emphatic that they need these days to be aligned with the college system so they can do Move On When Ready, so if there is another option, I would like to know it.”

Moore noted that systems on a 180-day calendar throughout the state start on or around August 4.

On Thursday, Dorsey had shown the school board information that most area school systems start between August 3 and August 8, except for Franklin County, which only is going 165 days and is starting on August 12.

Moore said he asked about starting on Monday, August 8, but was told by people he talked to they did not want holidays taken away in order to push the start back to that date.

“I have gotten mixed reviews from parents that say ‘we travel on those days, we want to go see family,’ or they cannot get childcare,” said Moore.

Moore also noted staff prefers starting on Thursday or Friday in order to have the weekend to iron out any first day problems before getting back into school on Monday.

Crunkleton said his main concern was that the August 4 start date for students would have teachers coming back on July 28 for pre-planning.

He made a motion to approve the calendar as presented, but give teachers the option to either work pre-planning days on July 28 and 29 or take those days and move them to post-planning at the end of the year, based on what an individual teacher wanted to do.

Crunkleton said he feels that would be a fair compromise to give staff some flexibility.

“If teachers want those two days for vacation or whatever in the last week of July, they can,” said Crunkleton.

However, Bellamy and Ledford say they feel August 4 is too early of a start date.

Bellamy said he would like to see the calendar pushed back as much as possible.

“If we can move the calendar back another week, the length of another week,” he proposed.

Dorsey said that is possible if the system is willing to give up holidays.

“We would move two days out of Thanksgiving break, three days out of the Christmas break,” said Dorsey. “That would give you five days.”

However, Fricks said that he hears that those holidays are important, especially Thanksgiving.

Crunkleton’s motion passed 4-2 with Ledford and Bellamy voting in opposition.

Bellamy said now that the calendar has passed, he will support it.

As approved by the board, the 2016-2017 calendar has a teacher work day in October, a week-long Thanksgiving holiday, and a week-long Spring Break.