Legislator forces tweaks to school start dates, hours
Published 11:14 pm Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Ashley Johnson | Times-Journal Few days to go: Students from Brantley Elementary School load onto the bus following classes Tuesday. Brantley students — as well as those from all of the Dallas County Schools — will finish their school year Thursday. Due to recent legislation that was passed in Alabama, their summer break will be two weeks longer than years past. -- Ashley Johnson
One option this new legislation gives is the choice for schools to either complete a required 180 days of instruction, or give 1,080 hours of instruction.
“From what we’ve seen in the school systems, there are a wide variety of ideas on how to make the new calendar,” said Dallas County Board of Education assistant superintendent Don Willingham.
Willingham said some systems that have adopted a calendar based on 180 days of instruction lose some holidays, while other systems that increased their daily instruction time by a few minutes may able to keep them.
“We were able to protect most of our holidays that we’ve been doing. We are extending the length of our school days by four minutes,” Willingham said. “The only holiday we took off the calendar was President’s Day and we will get out two days later prior to Christmas.”
While Dallas County chose to complete the hourly mandate for instruction, Selma City Schools have proposed a calendar that chooses to complete 180 days of school, forcing them to eliminate some holidays that were observed in the past.
On June 14 the Selma City School Board will vote on a calendar that reduces the winter holiday break by three days and Thanksgiving will no longer be a week.
Alabama legislators passed the act in hopes that by giving students a longer summer vacation the state would raise up to $22 million in tax revenue from tourists being able to stay longer and utilize the coast.
Selma City School’s Superintendent Greg Shirley, thinks there could be some negative effects on the students due to the longer summer break.
“Our summer break will be two weeks longer,” Shirley said. “When you look at a longer summer break there is a greater chance of summer learning loss.”
Shirley said researchers found students lose part of what they learned over the school year when they go home for summer.
School systems used to be able to create their school calendar based on start and finish dates of their choosing, enabling them to make a more local decision.
“We don’t have many options like we did in the past because they are telling us when to start and when to stop,” Shirley said.
The legislation has only gone into effect for one school year and will be revaluated afterwards of its effectiveness.
