What do you think of the school year calendar?
Lake County School District is committed to increasing student achievement, retaining high quality staff, and meeting the needs of our families and community.
To those ends, the district is looking at different school year calendars to see if making changes to our current calendar can promote those goals, especially with regard to reducing “summer slide”, or the loss of skills and learning that often happens to students during a long summer break.
The calendar committee needs feedback from parents and families like you, as a part of the discussion of possible calendar changes. Although your kids are in preschool now, starting next year or the year after, they will be in kindergarten, so your voice is important, too.
Some possible new calendars could be:
- 4 day calendar – Using this option, classes are in session only 4 days per week, rather than 5. In some districts, the 5th day is spent doing enrichment activities, and in some districts schools are closed on the 5th day. Since the number of days in the calendar is the same, school would with start earlier in August or run later in June, to be sure the number of required days are met using more but shorter weeks.
- Extended school year – This option adds days to the existing calendar of 170 student days per year. More days would mean and earlier start to the year and/or a later end to the year.
- Year round calendar – In this option, school is in session for the same total number of days, but the calendar is restructured to add some extra breaks during the year, with a summer break that is shorter than the current schedule. For instance, an additional break in the fall, a longer spring break, and only one month off in the summer. The additional breaks can decrease burnout for students and staff, and the shorter summer break allows less time for a loss of learning over that time.
Other considerations for the calendar include needs for closures for staff professional development and whether early release Wednesdays or late start Fridays meet this need in the best way. We also want to accommodate the schedules of student athletes, high school students taking CMC classes, requirements for mandated testing, and family schedules and special events.
Please take a few minutes to let us know things that you love about the current calendar and definitely want to keep, things about the current calendar that do not fit your needs and might be changed, and any other ideas for improvement to the calendar that you might like to see.
The calendar committee will meet again next week for discussion, so please let us know about your comments and concerns as soon as possible.
You can leave notes, leave voicemail, send email, or stop by for conversation. We look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you for taking some time to participate in this discussion. Your feedback is the best way to let us know your needs and wishes. Without your comments, we will be lacking an important part of the puzzle for decision making.