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After more than two years of contentious community debate, the Pleasanton school board voted last night to change the coming school year schedule with classes to start Aug. 15.
The school board has been considering changing the instructional calendar since 2013, and Tuesday night’s vote ends a long and contentious series of debates and revisions surrounding the start and end of school.
“I think we did a much better job this time,” board member Valerie Arkin said about the public opinion process prior to the calendar change. “We have been talking about this for quite some time. We need to be prepared to move on at this point.”
The board also took a step forward in its process to bring a bond measure before voters by hiring a polling firm to do a community survey to see whether passing such a measure in the city would be possible.
The biggest change for the 2016-17 school year will be that the new calendar shifts the start and end of school up by one week and puts first semester high school finals before winter break.
The vote was 4-0 with board member Chris Grant absent due to a work travel scheduling conflict.
The new calendar calls for fall classes to starts Aug. 15 and end for winter break on Dec. 22. Semester exams for high school students will be held from Dec. 20-22. Classes for all students will start Jan. 10 in 2017 and will end June 2. For high school students, final exams will be held on June 1 and 2.
The former district calendar began school year classes on Aug. 22 and ended the semester after winter break on Jan. 20.
The decision was ultimately made after input from a calendar committee made up of teachers, students, parents and others stakeholders and 3,645 people who took a districtwide survey about the issue.
Some community members, including members of the calendar committee, urged board members to accept the new calendar.
“We work hard to make our students competitive, and our calendar should support those efforts,” PUSD teacher and parent Ellen Gray said, mentioning high school seniors had been at a disadvantage because colleges require mid-year transcripts before the district’s first semester ended.
Several board members said they liked the new option because pushing finals before winter break allowed high school students to have a stress-free break, rather than having to use that time to study for pending exams.
However, implementing a decision six months before the start of the next school year drew some concern.
Several board members expressed concern that community members had already planning out their summer schedules, and some students and teachers might have a tough time getting back to the city in time for classes and training days. The board didn’t decide Tuesday exactly how that would be handled, but board members Valerie Arkin and Mark Miller hoped there would be some “flexibility” to make sure students don’t face extreme consequences such as losing their place in a specific school.
In 2014, parents and community members were angered after board members changed the instructional calendar to a “modified lite calendar,” so the board rescinded the calendar early last year and pushed discussions to this year. Tuesday’s vote closes the matter for the next year, and board members asked staff to talk with the teacher and classified unions to try and agree that this calendar should be the model for at least three school years.
The board also decided to approve a $24,000 contract for EMC Research, a polling firm that has an office in Oakland, to conduct a 15-minute survey among registered Pleasanton voters.
The district is looking at putting a bond measure for construction projects before voters, possibly as early as November. While the district hasn’t stated how much money it will ask for in the bond, the district has identified $500 million in project needs.
The pollsters will meet with a community committee made up of parents, board members, teachers and other stakeholders to create the polling questions, and the results will be brought before the board at a later meeting.
In other school news:
-The board approved regular personnel transfers, but one was brought to the board’s attention as causing some tension at a middle school. After Foothill high band director Josh Butterfield was promoted to interim vice principal at Foothill, Pleasanton Middle’s band director Lydia Lim moved to Foothill to be that school’s full-time band director this week. Pleasanton Middle’s band is now in somewhat of a limbo situation while the district figures out how to fill that role.
While I support a change to the calendar, to vote on it in Feb and make it effective for this fall is really irresponsible and wrong. It should have been decided and announced by December like other school districts or made the change for 2017/18. PUSD just can’t seem to get its act together.
Delighted – at last we shall be in line with so many other school districts in the area. Ok 6 months is short notice, but the suggestion of a mid August start in 2016 has been out there for so long that it hopefully has played a role in some peoples planning. PUSD please stick to this decision and implement.
@Kathleen,
Yes, I believe the new calendar is most beneficial to those in high school, which I guess is the winner in this.
Not sure whether it’s good or bad for middle-school students, but I don’t think it’s right for kids to have to start school in the middle of August. That’s still summertime in my book, and I’m sure it will disrupt a lot of parents’ summer vacation plans as well.
It always amazes me that so many parents in this town have “vacations” as their top priority. Oh yeah – and “no homework on weekends”. This is why I predict the reputations of neighboring districts (whose parents value *education*) will very soon surpass Pleasanton’s.
Enough of the ” we need to be catered to” nonsense! As a community it is an embarrassing reflection on us….
@Wow
So based on your logic, if you work hard and plan a well deserved vacation for your family, you don’t value education? I read the posts above several times and not once did I see anyone state that “vacations” as their top priority, nor did anyone state that they did not value education.
Pleasanton is a truly wonderful place to raise a family. The key word is family. A vacation and quality family time in most cases is the same thing. Yes, we value education (as well as appreciate how great our schools truly are) but we also value family…perhaps even more. I personally value family above education. You can have the best education available but without family life is pretty hollow.
We live in an area with many great opportunities for our kids in and out of the classroom. Because of this, free time is at a premium. Because of the inevitable crazy schedules, families plan their vacations many months or even years in advance. Predictability clearly comes into play when planning. Any district’s school calendar is without a doubt the most predictable variable. More than work, more than sports schedules, more than anything.
I personally favor the calendar change. The survey data supports it overwhelmingly as well. The timing, however, was terrible. This could have all been done months ago with more favorable results.
So we will change our plans, but we will still make the time to spend together as a family so that we can celebrate our hard work in the world and in the classroom. Time is short and so are the number of vacations we can all spend together before the kids are grown. Do we value education? Without a doubt. Do we value vacations? Darn right we do. Not because we are entitled to them but because we have earned them. Family comes first.
One thing to keep in mind while everyone talks about 6 months notice – The calendar for the fall is never finalized until at least March. The idea that the calendar is put out a year in advance in a normal year just isn’t true. I know this from 3 years ago when trying to book Christmas travel way in advance, I called the district to find out the exact dates of the Christmas holidays and was told the exact calendar wouldn’t be out until March after it was brought to the unions.
Thank you Ptown Pride, now I don’t have to write as much!
@wow….. are you kidding?? Family vacations are priceless. Do you know how hard it is to coordinate a family vacation especially if some members live across the country? This new calendar change came within 2 days of ruining my family vacation that we planned last summer. Now, knowing a change was coming, we planned early August, but please stop rolling your eyes at family vacations.
Yes, school is a top priority in our house. That’s why we wait to go on vacation over the summer. I don’t care if it’s a “stay-cation”, it’s still family time.
Tomorrow is guaranteed to no one. A balanced life is healthy.
@NoName
Totally agree with when the calendar has always been officially released. However, for many many years, you could predict the start and end dates within a couple of days. Spring break could get tricky but summer vacation was a safe bet. There are districts that release calendars three years in advance. It could be done here as well.
Hinske said at last night’s meeting that pre budget cutbacks they used to do the calendar for 3 years, now it’s year to year.
I just don’t think the timing is an issue. If the official calendar isn’t usually out until March, this is just not that big of a deal. If people were spending thousands booking vacation travel in previous years guessing when the calendar was going to start, I guess they could have also guessed that this year the school year might start earlier.
To me the calendar is pretty much a non issue, we’ll go to school when they tell us too. I do think there could be some issues in the fall when seniors are writing the ACT and the PSAT then have to immediately start studying for finals. They will need the winter break for sure because after that run they will be ready to drop.
I have younger kids and we enjoy having them home for a whole week before Christmas, but depending on how the old calendar fell, sometimes it’s a week, some times it’s a couple of days. On well, we’ll decorate the cookies at night or on the weekend.
None of it’s worse or better in my opinion everyone will just deal with it in the end.
Process last year was very shady though, why send home a survey with 5 opinions when only 2 had been approved by the unions and only two could be voted on by the board? Let’s just be open and honest. It’s good behavior to model for the kids.
If you look closely at the calendar, 6 – 12 grade will not have a full week of instruction for 5 straight weeks — from December 16 to January 23. They have 3 Mondays in a row off in January!
Even forgetting start date, the calendar committee did a horrible job designing this!
The new calendar is the most unfriendly calendar to working parents that I’ve ever seen! Random days off (not associated with standard holidays) abound — 10/28, 11/18, 1/9, 2/13, 2/17 (minimum day), 4/17. Not to mention the loads of elementary school minimum days.
Why not start school 1 week later and get rid of all of these randoms? Makes it SO hard for working parents to adjust.
Working Mom it just isn’t much different than this year’s calendar in terms of the min days and other days off? Is it?
There was talk last night of addressing all the min days -but of course that has to be agreed upon with the unions involved. The min days, instructional days, late starts on wednesday are all part of the collective agreement with the APT.
The push with this calendar change was to get the semester to finish in December before the Christmas break. With how opinionated everyone is I think it’s best to tackle one issue at a time.
@working mom– Where have you been? The new calendar is no different than past calendars, it’s simply shifted a week earlier. There are same amount of days off and min. days.
@frustrated parent– Not sure where you see three Mondays off in a row. One (1/2) is part of winter break.
To Everyone commenting here:
If you are complaining or had comments, you should have attended the board meeting last night and the meetings last week. I attended a meeting last week and sent my comments to the board. Though I do not like finals before winter break for one of my children, I did voice my opinion. The board decided to have finals before winter break. My tough luck. I took my opportunity to comment and you should have, too. Now stop complaining. You had your chance.
I went to school in Asia till 8th grade then I moved to Ontario, Canada where no school at any level starts before September (summer is short there). I happen to think family vacations are very important, my kids are less connected with the internet when we are on vacations and we have more time for conversations and just have fun in general. Before I moved here last summer, we intentionally avoid cities in the tri-valley that have crazy amount of homework and pressure. My older one is in eighth grade here in Pleasanton although her grades are good, she spent a lot of time on her homework everyday. Maybe that’s the way it is but a lot of the competitiveness with other school districts/cities are un-healthy and not necessary, in my opinion.
@Accepting – are you a 2working parent family or single working parent family? Or do you stay home and get to go play with the kids on these days off and go out for ice cream. Yes – there are always some days off (which there is NO reason for) and this year is far worse.
If you are a working parent – please share your wisdom on how you are able to take all of those days off from work and rearrange your schedule.
Year round school would have made the most sense both in terms of vacations and education.
@working mom: You need to pull out the 2015-16 calendar and the 2016-17 calendar and compare. Count the days off & min days and you’ll find they are equal in number. This is governed mostly by the teachers union. This has nothing to do with whether or not my household has two working parents. You brought up the calendar is terrible. If that’s the case, it’s just as bad as this years calendar, last years calendar and the others for the last ten years. Historically, the days off and min days are placed like they’ve been for a very long time.
@ PTownParent, when you say year-round school, do you still mean 180 days of school spread out over 12 months, or 200-250 days of school each year?
Chris Grant needs to decide if he has time to serve on the board or not. While his vote didn’t decide the outcome this was an important issue.
Still very unhappy that the only people allowed to take the survey were those that had children in school. What about all the residents in Pleasanton that are impacted by the change in calendars – such as parents with preschoolers and grandparents who take care of the kids on all the off days? Having no voice, how do you think we will feel when you ask us to approve a bond issue? Not pleased, I assure you.
Seriously people, what is the big deal! So school starts 1 WEEK earlier. It’s not like we are starting school in July. It’s 7 days earlier!!!!!! Our community sounds like a bunch of entitled brats. Unless you have had your head buried in the sand, there has been talk about changing the school calendar for the past 2 years. This change should not come as a surprise to anyone. Knowing that school may start earlier this year, people should have planned ahead for their vacation time. To the working mom that is complaining about days off and min days, like someone else pointed out, it’s the same as the past several years. I also am a working parent so I get it, but you have several months between now and the star of school to look for alternative arrangements for those days.
Oh, la tee da, kay sarah-sarah,
The high schoolers are pushed enough without this schedule change, now killing summer free time for what gain ?
My kids in high school, will be pushed before xmas break for final… LOVELY, oh LOVELY.
With our serendity-do-dah school board members only looking after the needs of staff and not the greater community.
@Working mom–Although people are correct that the days off in the new calendar are the same as on the old one, I agree with you about the challenge to working parents.
While I’m not thrilled about the minimum days and teacher work days, I’m willing to grant that they’re necessary. For the elementary conferences in November, for example, when else could they occur? Should teachers have to schedule them on evenings and weekends? They’re often working parents, too.
At the same time, the district holidays that are not standard business holidays drive me nuts, in particular the extra long weekends in February and March/April (this year March 28, next year April 17). No one has been able to justify to me why they exist.
I am so supportive of your comments about the challenges with all of the days off. They kill working parents who struggle to balance it day in and day out. Someone told me they thought the Monday before Presidents day is tied back to giving the teachers & staff a day off as a replacement for the loss of an old “snow week” that got removed. If this is true…that was an entire generation ago and needs to be updated to reflect todays world.
For all of those who are also frustrated, please please please, post on PW, speak at a Board meeting or at least send an email to the Board next Fall-before negotiations start to remind them that we still need to change these parts of the calendar as well. It was pushed off this year even though the survey supported change due to what I think was the need for more time to review options. I think I heard mention the Board was open to change the calendar in future years in these areas.
If working parents don’t remind them and push for change very strongly during this small window of opportunity, it will get forgotten or conveniently hidden away and we will still be stuck with this awful schedule on min days and random days off for years to come. The world has changed and the calendar needs to reflect that there are less families with a stay-at-home parent able to support all of these school day interruptions. Not to mention more importantly, what I believe is a major disruption in learning that goes with it.
So glad to see this change has finally been made. PUSD, please let’s stick with it this time around.
Here’s some advice for people scheduling vacations – the entire month of July; definitely no conflicts with that month.
@Birdland Resident
But there are conflicts in July with camps and most sports not finishing until end July. Then, in order to register, we really need to be back in town by 8/9 August.
I don’t like the new calendar but its better than the modified lite proposed last year. The majority of the community seems to want this change so, in view of a much improved process this time round, I accept the decision. I do hope they look at the minimum days in the future.
@Kelly, Chris Grant has a very good attendance record. If he was there the vote would have been 5-0. Kathleen stated many reasons, but it is not a big deal he was gone, he has served us thanklessly for many years.
@Following the Issue, almost all of the “off days” remained the same. Just the start and end have changed, for now, maybe more things will change in the future.
@ Susie, “This change should not come as a surprise to anyone.” I was very aware of all the changes and reversals and such the first go around, but I had no idea that this was happening this time, until my site union rep told me last month. And I am stunned the board did this with just over six months notice. Doesn’t affect me, but I’m sure this will be a problem for some. This was a surprise to me any many others.
@ The Race to No Where, “…school board members only looking after the needs of staff and not the greater community.” I am staff AND part of the community. As are many of my coworkers.
@ Parentof2, “I don’t like the new calendar but its better than the modified lite proposed last year.” The new calendar is the same as the modified lite, except for the week in October. But the first year wasn’t going to have the October week, and who is to say that a calendar with the week ever would have been approved? I really want a week in October, or maybe a 4-day weekend.
@getthefacts
“….the same except for the week in October.” That’s a big difference in my view! The modified lite with the October week was approved. The first year was just the transitional year so that there wouldn’t be such an impact on the length of summer.
But no calendar beyond the first year was approved. The board sets the start and end dates of the school year, and depending on the feedback they received they may have never approved the week. So this calendar is the SAME calendar that was approved originally.
@getthefacts
I think you are splitting hairs. The intention was always that there would be a week off in October after the first year, the modified lite calendar, otherwise why not just vote in the early start/finish option? I will rephrase my earlier comment – I don’t like the early start/finish calendar that they have adopted for 2016/17, but its better than the modified lite proposal which included a week off in October.
@Kathleen
“The problem with minimum days, and there are eight of them at varying grade levels, is they count as a full day of instruction. They aren’t full days and are often content free. So students are really getting 172 days of instruction. I am not blaming teachers; it must be frustrating to have shortened class time where students are chomping at the bit to go home. But this is a loophole that should be minimized at the least. It is a disservice to students and taxpayers.”
They are often content free??? That’s news to my kids. My wife and I work and have no problem with minimum days. They are just like a regular day. My kids go to school and then day care. Unless your job ends at 2:50 I don’t understand how minimum days could effect anyone. I like being able to meet with my child’s teacher during conference week. As a working parent I don’t get to see my child’s teachers that much. The face time is important.
172 days of instruction… is that with or without the family trips to Disneyland or oversees to see family.
I agree with Friend, most minimum days are not “content free”. I would have to say the day on or near Halloween, the day before Winter break, and the last day of school are tough to get anything done, for obvious reasons. But otherwise, teachers try hard to teach as much as they can in the three plus hours they have.
Kathleen, the minimum day on or near Halloween is because that truly is a hard day to get much done. So do you want teachers to struggle all day with kids overly excited about the evening festivities for a whole school day, or cut your losses and keep it at a half-day?
Kathleen, I’m glad we can agree about the day preceding Winter break and last day of school. But it’s not our fault Halloween messes with the kids heads all day long, so like I stated before, good time to use a minimum day to cut the losses.
I do agree that the November minimum days can and should be reconfigured, I believe there is momentum for that from what I saw at the meeting, so we will see where that goes. Those are for conferences, as is the full day off before Thanksgiving. We could investigate having conferences for at risk students only, but many teachers I talk to feel obligated to have a conference for all students, and many parents have expectations that they will have a conference for every child, no matter what their standing is. Many parents simply don’t want to hear, “your child is doing fine, no conference necessary,” and I understand that sentiment. So we cannot simply eliminate these days without reeducating parents and teachers on what these days will be about.
If you already planned summer vacation or camps for your kids and cannot change it – please call your local school for permission. If your kids miss the first few days of school they will loose their spot/class schedule.
Apparently a lot of folks are in this position and the schools are being flooded with calls. I guess PUSD is going to loose some $$ on this with lots of kids missing the first few days.
Too bad they could not have acted earlier or waited until 2017/18.
PSA, I recommend watching the board meeting from last Tuesday. http://www.tri-valleytv.org/school-pleasanton.html It was clear the board members, and HR director Diane Howell, are concerned about being fair to those missing the beginning of the year, especially for them not losing their spots.
Kathleen, I agree with everything in your last post. The Friday before conferences is just for TK-5. It is written poorly on the new calendar, I agree it does appear that 6-12 have it off, but they do not. That is the day that TK-5 have off but 6-12 do not, and the opposite is true of the day in January (this year it was on Jan 25th, next year it will be Jan 9th) that 6-12 have off but TK-5 do not. These unmatched days have been around for a while, and a complaint of many, and hopefully we can match these up in the future. Personally, I think this is a bigger hassle than minimum days.
I’m actually glad this happened. I want to continue this race to stress. The way I see it, this is another step in helping kids learn early what its like to be a stressed out adult. How dare they get it easy now. Slowly we are taking steps to show them that being an adult is stressful & that if you arent competitive in this world, you are less than. So… thank you school board for taking one more step in getting our kids used to the idea of the rat race. This race of being a stressed out, competitive adult that must keep up with the Jones’..and whoever else they will compare themselves to. You can never just be good enough kids, you have to be BETTER!
JK
I hate the change. How dare you take more time away from me & my babies. When will it ever be enough? Kids, dont compare yourselves to anyone, you are enough. Learn to take it easy & dont stress over the small stuff. And when you have kids, fight for their rights to be kids & let them know that down time is just as important as school. Don’t be another rat in the race.
It seems there was support for finals before break. But look at November; it is awful for grades 1-5. The calendar, which I’m sure will stand, needed to make sense for all students, not just high school.
Sorry about previous post with typos.
The problem with minimum days, and there are eight of them at varying grade levels, is they count as a full day of instruction. They aren’t full days and are often content free. So students are really getting 172 days of instruction. I am not blaming teachers; it must be frustrating to have shortened class time where students are chomping at the bit to go home. But this is a loophole that should be minimized at the least. It is a disservice to students and taxpayers.
Kelly, it’s difficult to have a full time career, a family, and be a board member. It’s already essentially a volunteer position. And to be fair, if the administration felt this was going to be a close call, they could have moved the item to the next agenda.
There also was a comment about fixing the calendar possibly taking another month. So be it. There isn’t much difference in six or five months’ notice. And they could have done two other things: make the change for 2017-18; request three years’ worth of calendars for adoption.
Lastly, it isn’t just family vacations that might have to be arranged; there are a variety of camps and competitions that can’t be changed.
Friend, I’m didn’t argue against conference time. I’d rather pay teachers (or swap the time for a day off in October) for it to occur after school. There are many ways to approach a change.
Minimum days don’t have enough time, particularly at middle and high school levels. For instance, why a minimum day on October 31? Who needs half a day off school to go trick or treating?
Each family chooses their priorities. I suppose it’s possible a few have family overseas, in which case they can look into independent study. Flight costs vary, weather could matter. Many factors drive a decision to pull student(s) out of school, even Disneyland.
GtF, I can agree about the last day of school and the one on December 22; that leaves six others. Halloween: We are ditching learning because there’s candy, and candy that no one goes out to get until after dark. Plenty of time between 3 and 7 to prepare. Then there’s three for conferences, which I think you agreed could be negotiated differently and I offered one suggestion above as well. I’m not sure why the February 17 and May 19 minimum days are necessary. We’ve added a full day off before we take a full week for Thanksgiving too.
Get the Facts, I wouldn’t want to eliminate conferences for those who are interested in the face time with a teacher. Maybe it should be mandatory for those students who struggle and optional for anyone else. The full day off before Thanksgiving week is for conferences just through fifth grade though, correct? So why is it a day off, or appears to be, for 6-12?