Polk County Schools administrators continue to wrestle with an uncertain calendar for the upcoming school year.
The board of education Monday, March 12 unanimously approved two potential calendar options for the 2012-2013 instructional year – one that has students attending school for 180 days and one with students in classrooms for 185 days.
“The board right now has to wait for legislative action to know exactly which calendar has to be followed next year,” Polk County Schools Superintendent Bill Miller said. “My recommendation is that we adopt these two calendars and try to explain to parents what we’re dealing with here. Hopefully to most parents the main thing they are worried about is what day we start and what day we end.”
Last year the state legislature mandated that schools move to add five days to the existing 180-day calendar, but Miller said the state has appropriated no funds to cover those five additional days. Polk County Schools applied last July for a waiver that allowed them to add just two additional days to the calendar; students this year attended on Jan. 2 and will also do so on April 30. The system hopes to be approved for another waiver this year for all five days.
In the meantime, both approved calendars would start on Aug. 27.
The calendar with 180 days would end on June 7 with a half day, as the system has done for the past few years. The 185-day calendar, however, would have students attending through a half day on June 10.
Both calendars would account for standard holidays such as Labor Day, New Year’s Day and Memorial Day. They would also allot eight school days off for students during Christmas break and would split spring break away from Easter because Easter falls so early next year. In the 2012-2013 school year, spring break would be held April 22-26.
The 185-day calendar does not, however, account for bad weather, with very few snow days included, Miller said.
“There’s basically no snow make-up days in that 185-day calendar and while it seems silly to worry about it after this year, most years that would be a terrible idea,” Miller said.
The other problem local board members said they see is that legislative action could come up in May that would require the school year to start on Aug. 20 – one week earlier than it currently does. If this happens the calendar would again have to be altered, Miller said. But he said the system does have back-up calendars prepared should that be required.