The school district is looking at possibly moving the school calendar year up by three weeks to avoid the untimeliness of winter break, which interrupts the first semester one month before it ends. If the change is accepted, the school year would begin in mid-August and end in May. This would also put the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in line with university schedules, enabling secondary students to complete testing and applications in a timely manner.
Rick Bagley, director of human resources for the district, has been working with a small committee on the proposal for a calendar change.
“The reason changes are being recommended is that people feel it is beneficial for the education of secondary children,” said Bagley.
Though the calendar change will not have a large effect, if any, on primary-grade students, Principal Cynthia Gray, of Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School, said the change will greatly benefit those in middle and high school.
“Basically, with having been a secondary administrator and teacher, I know the need to move them,” said Gray. “The testing schedule for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders is absolutely impossible.”
Gray said the elementary schools are not too excited about a change.
“[It’s] something we all have to accommodate in this era of testing,” she said. “It [the current schedule] takes a terrible toll on the curriculum.”
“The universities’ [schedules] and testing schedule is driving this, and the additional impact from the state’s accountability,” she said. “It’s a double whammy.”
Principal Mike Matthews, of Malibu High School, said that by ending the first semester before winter break, both teachers and students can “enjoy [the] break without work hanging over their heads.”
Also, another goal is to bring the ending of the school year to May, the time for all national testing, said Matthews.
“SATs, Advance Placement, all kinds of tests [take place] in May,” he said. “The more education we can get to the students before they take the tests, the better off we are.”
Another reason the change is a good idea, said Matthews, is that already one-quarter of kids in school, in athletics, are on campus.
“Why not have a cleaner break during the year?” reasoned Matthews. “For athletics it works well,” he said.
This concept applies to the end of the year as well, because all spring athletics end in May, he said.
One ramification of a calendar change, which Phil Cott, principal of Webster Elementary School, pointed out, is the new calendar would put the SMMUSD schedule on a different track than other school districts, such as L.A. Unified. Currently, LAUSD has three different schedules, two year-round and the LEARN calendar, which resembles most other school district schedules.
“Activities during the summer, such as summer camp, may be affected,” he said.
However, “the biggest change would be that it’s different,” he added. “Some people don’t like change.”
Bagley said the teacher’s union has been conducting a poll of their membership to see if they’re interested in the concept of a change. It is a change, he said, that could take place slowly, over a period of two, three or even five years.
The committee working on the proposal is getting together by the end of this month, said Bagley, and will have union imput by then. The committee will then take imput from the various site governance councils from each school.
If a calendar change is approved, it will then go to the district board sometime in February, and most likely be up for action sometime in March or April, said Bagley.
It is unknown what impact Gov. Gray Davis’ recent proposal to extend the school year by six weeks will have on the SMMUSD’s proposal. However, Mike Jordan, SMMUSD board member, said, “It could create a whole host of problems” for school districts in general.
Scheduling, intervention programs, teacher burnout, problems with equity in work loads are a few areas Jordan said could be affected by the governor’s idea.
“I think the idea behind it [the six week change] is good,” said Jordan, “but it seems fraught with problems from the get go.”