School calendar in question with Hamilton Southeastern Schools
If you are a family with school-aged children, chances are your life revolves around the school calendar. It is taped on your refrigerator, saved in your Google calendar, and becomes the blueprint for your entire year. It is no surprise than that changes to a calendar meet with considerable resistance. Take, for example, the parents of students in the Hamilton Southeastern Schools district, who are not too happy with the just-released 2018-2019 school calendar.The issue, like all things related to government and bureaucracy (even at the local level), is complicated. If you haven’t been keeping up or are just generally scratching your head, let’s break it down:
First things first, the survey.
Hamilton Southeastern Schools sought out input from parents, teachers, and even students regarding changes to the academic calendar. Here is an overview of how people responded:
When given a choice between a longer summer and shorter breaks or a shorter summer and longer breaks, 56% of respondents chose a longer summer (versus 43% for shorter summer).
64% of people who took the survey thought Thanksgiving break should last for three days, starting on Wednesday.
The option (out of four proposed) that the slight majority of respondents chose called for one week of fall break, one week of spring break, start of school on Wednesday, August 8, end of school on Friday, May 24.
Second, the results.
HSE Schools posted an update yesterday via Facebook that the school board voted to give students a week off at Fall Break, a week off for Spring Break, a full week off for Thanksgiving, and classes starting Monday, August 6. This option had the second amount of votes in the survey, but that fact is doing very little to quiet the public outcry.
RELATED READING: The great Carmel, Indiana recess debate
Third, the feedback.
Parents and teachers are taking to social media to voice their opinions. The reactions are varied, but the comments and namely the criticisms have some consistency. Here is what people are saying:
“Why offer a survey if you don’t listen to the results?” said one parent via Facebook. There is a general consensus that the school district frequently seeks and then disregards input from those affected. CityMom April added "My problem with their decision is they wasted time and money to conduct a survey asking their constituents their opinions, only to 'be skeptical that it should be used to help guide the decision.' Why do the survey at all then?"
What about working parents? Finding childcare on long breaks during the school year isn’t easy. Maybe area organizations and businesses will get savvy and begin offering camps during these school holidays, but for now the pickings are slim, putting an extra strain on working parents. "Honestly, the average working parent does not get enough vacation time to embrace the new found family time during the holidays." said one commenter.
Give us more Summer! Many parents and teachers complained that it doesn’t make much sense, given the Midwestern winters, to offer more breaks during cold, dreary months, but to take away time from our beautiful summers. This also impacts family vacation, summer sports, and back to school activities.
Mondays are tough. If you are confused why the Monday start is such a hot button issue: Many parents, and teachers, argue that transitioning students back to school after summer break with a shorter break is much more effective. Especially for the youngest students.
Lastly, the flip side: Ethics.
CityMom Krissie best summed up the concerns we've heard: "The results of Monday nights actions at the Board meeting call to question the ethics in which the Board is officially conducting their duties. The Board lacks a central vision on which to act, without vision the board is left to vote based on personal interest and/or opinion. It is not the role of ANY board member to act in fulfilling personal beliefs, values, or interests but rather to work as a policy making body alone. They have gone against the will of the superintendent, the teachers, and the community. If you need it, I can post a copy of the Indiana School Board Code of Ethics. I care less about the ultimate result of the calendars selected than I do about the way in which it was handled."And Krissie is not alone. MANY parents voiced frustration that a vote publicly scheduled and confirmed for December 13th was sporadically added to the November agenda at the time of the meeting without parents knowledge {see photo}.One mom even provided this snippet from the HSE School Board website: "As a body created under the laws of the State of Indiana, the Board of School Trustees of Hamilton Southeastern Schools has full authority, within the limitations of Federal and State laws, to carry out the will of the people of the corporation on matters of education." So did they?
Of course we always want to hear what our CityMoms have to say.
Dorothy said, “ I don't think we need a full week off for Fall Break; I do appreciate the full week for Thanksgiving! Going to school up until Dec. 23 is going to cut into our travel time.” Amanda said, “We have a full week for fall break and love it. We moved our family vacation to October and the destinations are almost empty.” April added "I don't understand why there's four weeks off in fall/winter and one off in spring. If it is supposed to be more balanced, I would expect the time off to be, you know, balanced, throughout the year." You can see the new calendar here.
