Schools
District to Decide 2014-15 School Calendar in June
Superintendent: Many parents prefer a later spring break.
The School District of the Chathams sent out a survey of four calendar choices for the 2014-2015 school year to parents over the past two weeks and plans to make its final decision in June.
Superintendent Michael LaSusa explained during Monday’s board of education meeting that the big differentiation among the calendar choices is the placement of spring break. The calendar choice with the most first-place votes as of Monday was calendar No. 3, although calendar No. 4 had the best aggregate score with the second most first-place votes and most second-place votes.
Much of the discussion centered around the suggested 2015 spring break for calendar No. 3., which would be April 13 to 17, following Easter break, a late opening the following Monday and then four and a half days of school. Board Vice President Jill Critchley Weber asked if there was a reason, such as busing concerns, for not wrapping Easter break and spring break into one.
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LaSusa said the main reason was that he had received some feedback during the school year from parents who expressed that March and early April were not ideal for spring break. Some of the comments from parents included the beginning of the spring sports season and the cold weather, which some said was not ideal for students planning to visit colleges.
“And from my perspective, it’s always better to have [spring break] later,” LaSusa said. “If you have a snow storm and you have to make up days, it’s better for that week to be pushed back a little bit.”
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Board member Lata Kenney said the district should be wary of when elections will be held in 2015. Board administrator Peter Daquila said the election typically takes place the third Tuesday of April, which would be April 21.
“You could also argue that, instead of having the break so close to the week of the vote, it would be better to have the break from the April 6 to April 10,” LaSusa said.
LaSusa said the district sent out the survey the week of May 6 and planned to keep it open for about 10 days, until May 16 or 17. The district will then take the results into consideration before it makes its decision.
