Lynnfield board to tackle upcoming school year calendar

LYNNFIELD – The fate of the 2009-2010 school calendar rests in the hands of the Lynnfield School Committee. The five-member board is expected to vote on the change proposed by Superintendent Bob Hassett tonight during their regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. at the high school.Concern over the upcoming school calendar arose after parents, teachers and administrators realized that students had only completed three full five-day weeks of school within the first 10 weeks this year. Hassett attributes the many short weeks to the planning of his predecessor.”It made for a very choppy start to the school year,” Hassett said, adding that it took children longer to get into the swing of things. After receiving many emails and having many conversations with concerned individuals, Hassett thought it would be best to look into the schedule for next year and try to somehow avoid having a similar situation happen again.Three scenarios were presented to the public, all with varying start dates, end dates, holidays and days of vacations. The first option wished to start school earlier on Aug. 31, include class on the Friday before Labor Day, close school in celebration of the holiday, then start back up with full-week schedules around typical holidays and breaks. The last day of school, with five snow days built in, would be June 23.The second option was similar, however, it extended the holiday break to two weeks, giving students the last two weeks of December off. The last day of school under this plan would be June 28, again with five snow days built in.The third option pushed up the start of school much earlier than the norm with students reporting to school on Aug. 26. It, too, included two weeks of winter vacation, however, with an end date of June 23.Hassett said the idea for a longer winter vacation came in light of energy cost savings. After looking into it further, the department would only save $1,000 a day, or $3,000 overall.After gathering feedback on the three options, Hassett has narrowed down his proposal to include that teachers would start the school year on Aug. 31 and use that day as well as Sept. 1 for professional development. Students would report on Sept. 2, 3, and 4, take the long holiday weekend and report back on Sept. 8.Another interesting turn of events is the removal of Nov. 3 as a professional development day. The date was originally reserved for in-school voting, but as there won’t be an election until the annual town’s election in April, that day has been bumped up to Nov. 2. making another long weekend. The last day of school would fall on June 25, with snow days or June 18 without.Hassett said those few changes alone will double the number of full 5-day weeks within the first 10 weeks of the year.Other changes include combining parent-teacher conference for middle and elementary school families. Hassett said that holding both events on the same day will allow parents to take less time off from work.Vacations won’t change under Hassett’s proposal either although there has been some speculation of holding school on several religious holidays.”That is just not a change that we are ready to take on this year.” said Hassett.