Your donation will help us produce journalism like this. Please give today.
George McKenna asked that the calendar be approved for one year only.
After flip-flopping on the school calendar a few times to try to start the school year closer to Labor Day, the LA Unified school board voted Tuesday to solidify their school calendar for at least one more year. But they’ll wait for data to approve a calendar for more years.
Next year, school will start in mid-August, there’s a week off during Thanksgiving and three weeks off over the winter break. And the school semesters will be divided by the winter break.
Superintendent Michelle King wanted to set the calendar for three years to help families plan vacations.
But board member George McKenna once again suggested that the board approve a calendar for one year and then analyze data, which is also what the board decided last year. He wanted to start the school year closer to Labor Day.
The board went back and forth about the school start dates when a survey got mixed feedback suggesting that parents wanted school to start after Labor Day but have the semester end before winter break. It was an impossible task while keeping the 180 school days required.
“This is one of the most complicated things we have to do,” said board President Steve Zimmer. “Teachers are asking us, we need time to recharge, parents are saying we don’t know how they will feed the children if the schools are out.”
AALA President Juan Flecha representing principals and administrators also said the people he represents overwhelmingly support the schedule and not beginning later in August.
UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl praised the board for changing the calendar to start in mid-August again, because most teachers agreed with that decision. He added, “I hope you stick to that.”
But they didn’t. Even though high school student board member Karen Calderon explained how it helps high school students, and Mónica García and Mónica Ratliff agreed, the other five other board members agreed to the one-year calendar and to wait for data to decide if the schedule should change again.
Below is the schedule for the next calendar year. The actual dates off are also listed in the board meeting materials, starting on page 255.
