The Columbus Municipal School District Board of Trustees is set to vote on adopting a modified school calendar, perhaps as soon as Monday.
Trustees devoted most of Wednesday’s board review meeting discussing the school calendar.
“I think when we have our regular meeting Monday, the board will make the decision about whether to go forward with the superintendent’s recommendation to adopt a modified calendar or hold some more public meetings to drill down on some of the questions parents might have about the calendar,” Board President Jason Spears said.
Earlier this year, CMSD held virtual information meetings and surveyed parents, suggesting two modified calendar options that would both create a fall break, extend the Christmas and spring breaks and shorten the summer break.
Under the option that will be recommended for board approval (Calendar B), the school year will start July 15. Students will be on fall break Sept. 20-Oct. 8, Thanksgiving-Christmas break Nov. 22-Jan. 5, and spring break March 14-April 1. Classes would end on June 8. The following school year would begin mid-July.
Spears said if the board votes to approve the modified calendar, students won’t be immediately affected.
“We won’t see much change this summer because students will still get out of classes May 21,” he said. “They’ll still have a pretty long summer break this summer.”
Spears said the board still has plenty of time to consider the issue, although the sooner the board makes its decision, the better.
“The department of education doesn’t require us to submit the calendar until May,” Spears said. “So if we don’t decide to move forward on the recommendation Monday, we still have plenty of time to have more discussions. We want to get as much buy-in from parents as possible. So if that means waiting a little longer, we’re in a position to do that. But the sooner we can make that decision, the more time we’ll have to dive into our plans and parents will have more time to think about how they’ll need to adjust to the new calendar.”
Monday’s regular board meeting is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. at Brandon Central Services.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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