School Will Start After Labor Day in 2013

Merrimack students will begin school after Labor Day next fall and will see one less fall holiday after the School Board voted Monday night to eliminate Columbus Day as a day off.

The decision was not unanimous. Chairman Chris Ortega and board member Shannon Barnes both voted against the elimination of the holiday, but the decision was made after a month of receiving parent input on the school calendar.

Ortega, in late February, invited district parents to take a look at the proposed calendar for 2013-14 school year, and offer their suggestions on ways they might improve the plan.

The approved calendar looks like this: The first day of school will be Sept. 3 – the day after Labor Day. Superintendent Marge Chiafery said the reason for delayed start is because they stacked teacher workshops ahead of the school year to cut down on days off during the year.

Other dates of note include the following vacation days: Veterans Day, Nov. 11; Thanksgiving recess from Nov. 27-29 holiday recess from Dec. 23-Jan. 1; Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 20; Winter recess from Feb. 24-28; Spring recess from April 28-May 2; Memorial Day, May 26; and the tentative last day of June 13.

Before voting to remove Columbus Day from the calendar, the last day of school would have been Monday, Jun 16. Seeking to “smooth the edge” as Andy Schneider put it, the board examined removing one holiday in favor of trying to get kids out of school a little earlier without spilling over into a second week.

One snow day, flood day, hurricane day or what have you, will push the calendar into a subsequent week, but on the chance that there are no days of school canceled (the last time that happened was 2002) school will end the Friday before Father's Day.

Board Vice President Davis Powell initially sought to remove MLK Day from the listed holidays (on Jan. 20) but the motion failed 3-2 with Ortega, Barnes and Schneider in opposition.

Barnes suggested if one of these holidays were worked back into the calendar, she thought it would be important to plan curriculum around why the day is important. Barnes said she wouldn't support having children in school on one of the federally recognized holidays unless there was a foundation for curriculum based around that day and at present they don't know that there would be.

Barnes also pointed out that having school on Columbus Day –a holiday observed by Nashua and Hudson – would mean vocational students who attend programs at at those schools, would not be able to attend their typical classes that day.

Others on the board agreed with the curriculum matter, but didn't see it as a sticking point.

“I think the students would be better off learning more about why the day is given, than have the day off,” Powell said.

Schneider said if planning curriculum around one of the holidays, he thought Columbus Day curriculum could better flow into what's being taught at the beginning of October, which is why he opposed Powell's motion.

No other changes were made to the calendar (which is posted in its original form in a PDF above.)

Ortega thanked the parents who wrote in for their input.

“We welcome (input) on this topic and frankly all topics that come before the board,” Ortega said. “It helps us in our decision making.”

Board member George Markwell agreed.

“It's nice that we've had parent input because traditionally its only been staff, and I think that's wrong,” Markwell said.

As for suggestions that came in, like merging February and April vacations into a week in March and going to instructional hours calculating the length of the school year vs. a straight 180 days, Ortega said those are conversations the board wants to have, but need coordination and investigation and wouldn't fit the timeline of approving this calendar.

In particular, combining the two vacations into a single one is not a simple decision when you take in to account shared services, sports, vocational programs and more. They need to move much more in lockstep with other districts, like Nashua and Hudson, where an average of 35 vocational students attend specialized programs each year.

“I think with the number of folks who've spoke out on the topic, I think longer term that it's something we can and should explore, working with other districts having the superintendents and if need be school board members get together to explore if its something we can do,” Ortega said.

Other suggestions, like calculating the year by instructional hours (and thereby lengthening the day slightly) instead of by a 180-day cycle, and creating blizzard bags were also topics Ortega said the board will explore.

Blizzard bags are pre-set work scheduled by teachers and sent home with kids in the event of a snow day. If 80 percent of the district population completed the work on a snow day, the school district wouldn't have to make it up, Ortega said.

These kinds of suggestions will be put on upcoming meeting agendas so they are examined before the next calendar comes around.

“I wanted the input I asked for the input, asked for it twice,” Ortega said. “I think we need to distill that for those that responded, but by the same token we can't give up our responsibility to take that input and make what are sometimes difficult decisions.”

The public sounds off on the 2013-14 calendar:

• Of 66 emails, 27 liked it exactly as it was.

On the school start date:

• 54 people say they like starting after Labor Day
• 12 prefer an earlier start

On February and April vacations

• 25 people said they wanted to combine February and April vacation into a week in March
• 41 prefer two weeks.
• 3 people would prefer if vacations would align with Massachusetts.
• One person wanted next year's April vacation to align with Easter, which falls on Sunday, April 20.

One day holidays:

• 10 people want fewer one-day holidays like Columbus Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc.
• 1 person likes the idea of more one-day holidays

Christmas vacation

• 5 would like shorter vacation
• 5 would prefer longer
• Thanksgiving break
• 5 people would prefer having school on the day before Wednesday.
• 1 person would prefer a longer Thanksgiving break

Other suggestions

• 3 people would like to see the year calculated in instructional hours versus a straight 180 days.
• 2 people suggested blizzard bags.
• 1 person would like to see the calendar align with Manchester because that's where they work.
• 1 person suggested sending kids to school for a full calendar year.