School Calendar Survey Available Now

If you've ever been frustrated or confused by the EG public school calendar, now's your chance to weigh in. From now until Friday, April 5, the school department is seeking input on everything whether school should start before or after Labor Day and having one week of vacation in March instead of weeks in February and April.

The School Committee decided to ask parents to fill out a calendar survey after prolonged discussion of the school year during review of the proposed calendar for 2013-14, as well as general frustration that the last of school this year isn't until Monday, June 24, because of four weather-related school cancellations.

The committee approved the calendar for next year at their meeting last week. Results of the calendar survey will be used for the 2014-15 school year.

Here's the explanation that accompanies the survey itself (which can be found by clicking here):

The East Greenwich School Committee has discussed and received input from parents about both the start and end dates for our school year. Some have sought to have school start later (i.e., after Labor Day). Some have expressed concern about continuing school late into June, especially when we incur "snow days" which extend the school year.

To allow more flexibility in either starting later, ending earlier, or both, the time currently allotted to vacations and/or holidays would have to be curtailed. To aid in this discussion, the Committee is actively seeking community input for the school calendar for the 2014-2015 academic school year.

Please take a moment to respond to the following questions regarding school vacations and holidays. The survey will close on April 5, 2013.