School calendar committee targets commonalities

To avoid unnecessary, partisan debate, a committee recommending one universal calendar for the Beaufort County School District decided Thursday the best way to arrive at a decision is to first establish what it can't change. Then, debate over what's left. The committee of teachers, principals, district officials and parents spent most of its second meeting figuring out how it would go about setting on one calendar, a heated issue that has sidetracked the district for more than two years.

It decided at its next meeting to split into groups and establish what major educational events occur each month at the district's three schooling levels: elementary, middle and high. Then the committee will look for commonalties that will push the committee toward a new universal calendar. It will also begin looking at set state- and federally mandated testing dates to guide the debate.

The committee did, however, settle on certain guidelines. First, it has two choices for a state date, said Randy Wall, a district academic achievement officer, between July 13 and 20 or between Aug. 17 and Sept. 8. A state law precludes school districts from starting before the third week in August, but the district could get a waiver if it moves to a "true" year-round calendar that starts in mid-July, Wall said. The S.C. Attorney General's Office would likely consider any start date between those two options a weak attempt to circumvent state law without good reason, he said.

After that, the committee established other key questions it must resolve, most of which Wall believed would be solved easily once a start date is chosen:

How long should major breaks be, and how should they be spaced?

How should we space 10 in-service days for teachers?

How should other working days without students be organized?

How do superintendent Valerie Truesdale's extra 20 days for poor-performing students fit into the calendar?

Committee members were also given their first real opportunity to discuss which calendar they favored, traditional or year-round. Several principals and other educators said they weren't as concerned over which calendar the district chooses.

"The key is what's taking place in the 180 days in the classroom," said Donald Gruel, principal of Mossy Oaks Elementary School.

Mike Allen, a Beaufort High School teacher, said he preferred a traditional calendar and didn't believe either calendar influenced academic performance.

"If it was up to me, it'd be traditional," he said. "Everything I've learned and known so far has said it's an insignificant difference."

Others who favored year-round calendars said children frequently languish during the traditional calendar's longer summers.

"The break for them was entirely too long," Faye Alston, a parent at Lady's Island Elementary School, said about her children. "It almost drove them crazy." She also claimed traditional calendars placed more of a financial burden on parents who cannot afford to send their children to summer camps or other diversions throughout the summer. Those students end up alone, Alston said.

"They're going to sit in front of the TV set. They're going to play the Xbox, and that's going to be it," she said.

The committee will meet through September and present Truesdale with a recommendation, which she could give to the school board Oct. 7.

The committee will meet in Port Royal Elementary School at 6 p.m. Thursday.