Hey, there! Log in / Register
School officials in no rush to eliminate February break or start school in August
By adamg on Wed, 03/23/2016 - 9:59pm
School Superintendent Tommy Chang said tonight that any changes to the BPS calendar wouldn't happen until at least the 2017-2018 school year, if not later - or if at all.
Recent news that he's looking at eliminating Febuary break, extending the Christmas break and starting school before Labor Day are just the starting point of an overall look at the school calendar that will involve extensive discussions with parents, students and teachers - who would have to give their OK as part of contract negotiations.
School Committee member Miren Uriarte said a longer Christmas break would help the many Latino students who go to back to their original homelands to visit with families then.
Committee member Michael Loconto expressed skepticism about starting school in August because BPS schools don't have air conditioning and it can be pretty hot here in late August.
Officials began thinking about the school calendar after last year's winter, in which students got so many snow days they had to go to school through the end of June.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
BTU
To walk out in a huff over the public reveal of a possible change in vacation policy that would hugely impact every BPS family is just silly. Why shouldn't the families of BPS be aware of this idea so they can also react to it? Does Stutman think that the BTU should get to decide by itself?
Richard Stutman should have less of a voice is deciding the future of our school system than families and administrators. His job function is to extract money/benefits in exchange for any changes to the status quo so he's coming at reform from a very different angle than the rest of the stakeholders in BPS.
Summer temps
It looks like the average high temps in Boston are above 80 from about June 20th through Aug 26th (based on the Arnold Arboretum weather station, since Logan is cooler than many parts of the city in summer).
To me, it doesn't sound unreasonable to center the school year around those dates.
So maybe starting school a week earlier would be an improvement, two weeks earlier might be pushing it, depending on when labor day falls.