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Survey shows strong parent and staff support for exams-before-Christmas calendar; staff propose adjustments
Summary
A board presentation summarized results from 1,392 calendar survey responses favoring an option with exams before Christmas; staff proposed moving some workdays to December and adding a September workday, which would yield 77 fall student days and 91 spring student days if adopted.
Doctor Perkins presented results from the district’s calendar feedback survey, saying 1,392 individuals responded and that parents and staff showed strong support for the option that schedules exams before the Christmas break. "Parents gave a lot of feedback ... there was really strong and consistent support for exams before Christmas break," Perkins said.
Perkins said 805 of the respondents were parents and that a large share named exam scheduling, end-of-year timing and calendar balance as top factors in their choice. He told the board the calendar committee was likely to recommend "Option 1" to the board because of the overwhelming stakeholder preference.
Staff recommended a set of refinements to the original option before the calendar committee votes: move the annual leave day from Jan. 4 to Dec. 22 and shift a Jan workday to Dec. 21 so the last day before winter break would be Dec. 18. Perkins also proposed moving a workday to Sept. 28 to avoid a long stretch of instruction without breaks; with those adjustments staff would expect 77 student days in the fall semester and 91 in the spring.
Board members asked how the plan would accommodate Advanced Placement (AP) exam windows and Perkins said staff would monitor AP schedule releases and bring date adjustments back to the board if needed. Perkins estimated roughly 587 staff members completed the survey, about half of district staff when counting certified staff and substitutes.
Perkins said staff used AI to group open-ended comments into themes and provided links to full comment pages for board members to review. The calendar committee will review the recommended adjustments this week and, if it approves them, will forward a recommendation to the full board for final approval.
