Statewide school calendar goes back to lawmakers
Toolbox
By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: January 15, 2008
MONTPELIER — A uniform statewide school calendar was supposed to solve problems for parents, such as conflicting vacation schedules, and allow districts to share teachers and facilities.
But objections to the proposal in public hearings across the state and problems in the details of how it will be implemented have delayed what might seem a simple idea.
A committee of education experts and advocates sent out by lawmakers last year to come back with a recommended calendar has instead come back with a series of questions and proposed changes.
Although he still believes a uniform calendar is needed, Commissioner of Education Richard Cate has asked lawmakers to reconsider parameters they set last year for the calendar.
"As we go forward, students, especially with distance learning and online environments, they need to access topics in ways we don't do that much now," Cate said.
For example, if a half-dozen students in Brattleboro, Canaan and Burlington all want to study Mandarin Chinese they could do so with a teacher over the Internet.
"I want them to be in school on the same day so they can do it together," Cate said.
A uniform calendar would also make it easier for students to use the state's regional technical centers, members of the committee said. Now, students who use the centers risk missing out on school days because of differing calendars.
But other members of the committee charged with drafting the proposed calendar found that many school board members and others across the state who didn't agree on details such as when school should start and how to measure school days could agree on one thing: They don't see how a universal calendar will work in a state where each district operates differently.
"After all the regional meetings, there were far more questions than there were answers and a lot of resistance to making the statewide calendar," said Robert Stevens, executive director of the Vermont Principals' Association. His organization, representing many principals with different views, does not have a position on the idea. But he has questions about whether a statewide calendar can work given the trouble enforcing the district calendars now required — and sometimes ignored.
"Personally, I would like to see us work on having an enforceable regional calendar. Once that is in place, work towards a statewide calendar, if there are advantages for kids," Stevens said.
He wonders how much of the push for a statewide calendar is to improve students' educations and how much of it is to make coordinating vacations and job schedules easier, Stevens added.
Rep. Janet Ancel, D-Calais, said that after hearing from the committee members and Cate last week she was encouraged a workable solution can be reached.
"We are looking for a solution and these folks on the calendar committee have worked extremely hard," she said. "I felt fairly hopeful at the end of the day."
Cate suggested a series of changes that could be made to the law guiding the development of the calendar to try to reach consensus:
Instead of 175 shared or common days across school districts, perhaps 165 days should be required to give more flexibility. And perhaps districts that have longer school years of 180 total days of education should be allowed to start earlier than other districts, which would begin the Tuesday before Labor Day under the uniform calendar. Finally, although the statute required five full in-service days for teacher training, that could be shortened for schools where teachers learn during several partial days spread out across the month instead.
It is unlikely those statutory changes can be made and a new proposal drafted by the Jan. 30 deadline for the committee, Cate said. But he does hope that with some delay the statewide calendar will ultimately be successful.
Ancel said she expects lawmakers will be willing to take another look at the statute.
"If the parameters the legislature set don't result in a workable calendar I would want to know about that," she said. Ancel said she hopes the calendar committee returns to Montpelier before the end of the month.
"I think it is important our committee hear before that," she said.
Some members of the committee, like Stevens, wonder if so many districts will request an exemption to the calendar that it becomes irrelevant.
The committee, with the exception of Cate, voted unanimously to not recommend a statewide calendar by the end of January, Stevens said.
"The current law as written was just way too restrictive," he said.
Ancel said there is some connection between Cate's idea of consolidating some school districts and the statewide calendar. Montpelier is very unlikely to require consolidation, but a statewide calendar could help districts do that to a limited extent if they choose to.
"It creates the infrastructure that can help that happen," Ancel said.
Cate said there is a loose connection.
"My goal is always the same with all of these things I suggest. That we provide more educational resources to students no matter where they live," Cate said. "That is the one common thread behind all of them for me."
Contact Louis Porter at louis.porter@rutlandherald.com.
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