School board debates calendar, opts for Aug. 31 start

by Lily Cullen Hungry Horse News
| May 3, 2017 6:55 AM

Calendars and curricula were at the forefront in last week’s School District 6 board meeting.

The board was tasked with voting on a new calendar of school days for the 2017-2018 school year, having to decide between the schedule preferred by the majority of teachers and the schedule recommended by Superintendent Steve Bradshaw.

Most teachers preferred a calendar that would have students starting the school year after Labor Day on Sept. 5, and attending school on both Dec. 22 and Jan. 15, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Bradshaw, however, recommended a calendar that would start school on Aug. 31 but include holidays on Dec. 22 and MLK Day. Both calendars would have the last school day on June 8.

The board was divided. Student attendance was a big issue. Members proposed that some students would be less likely to start on time Aug. 31 with Labor Day right around the corner, and might instead show up after the long weekend anyway. Trustee Barbara Riley was also concerned that both calendars had snow days on June 11-12, the Monday and Tuesday after the official end of the school year.

“You’d never get them back,” she said.

Instead, Riley proposed having early release on Dec. 22, holding classes on MLK day, and ending the school year on June 6, with snow days Thursday and Friday, June 7-8.

Bradshaw and others responded that students less likely to show up after the year end wouldn’t come back anyway, regardless of what days of the week snow days are held. Bradshaw also noted that the state mandates a certain number of hours spent in school per year, not days, and with the district’s longer school days, they have flexibility. It would take more than five snow days to require extra days in June, Bradshaw said.

Ultimately, Trustee Larry Wilson made a motion to approve the Aug. 31 start-date calendar, stating that with athletics beginning early in August, it makes more sense to have all the students in school earlier. Wilson’s motion passed.

The other major discussion of the evening was about the transition to a new curriculum system.

Dot Wood, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Glacier Gateway Elementary, sought approval to adopt the Journeys K-5 core reading program. Since the mid-2000s, she said, the school has been trying to develop comprehensive literacy units. The ability to create a unified system is challenged by insufficient time for teacher collaboration outside of school hours. Teachers also want to use their own approaches and skills.

But because the school doesn’t have a consistent curriculum, new teachers come to the school unable to figure out where their students stand, or what to teach them for the next grade level.

“It’s incumbent on us to provide a system that teachers can use to do their jobs effectively,” she reminded the board.

The Journeys program isn’t cheap, with a bill of $137,063.95 up front for hard copy books and a six-year online subscription for grades K-5. However, in 2011-2016, the school district spent $27,337 on kindergarten alone, and the Journeys system wouldn’t have to be replaced as often as stand-alone textbooks and materials.

The board approved the new curriculum unanimously.