School board set
to unify calendar

A DOE plan gives students seven
weeks off during the summer

Public school students will have a short, seven-week summer vacation, but get three breaks during the school year under a new calendar poised for approval tomorrow by the Board of Education.

The new calendar would take effect in the 2006-07 school year.

"I fully expect it to pass," Board Chairman Breene Harimoto said yesterday. "It's the plan that makes the most sense, because it's the option that most people can live with."

Hawaii's public schools now operate on several different calendars, pushing up administrative costs for the Department of Education -- from payroll to school buses -- and complicating life for families with kids on competing calendars.

Last year the Legislature heeded Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto's call and mandated a uniform calendar for public schools, except for charter and multi-track schools. The board must choose one by July 1.

Close to two-thirds of the state's 282 schools have already abandoned the traditional school calendar, with its 10-week summer vacation, for various year-round schedules. The department is now recommending the year-round calendar that most schools already use.

It is known as 1-3-2, because it has a one-week break in the fall, three weeks at Christmas and two in the spring. The start and end dates of the school year will be set in consultation with the unions, but schools now on that calendar begin on July 27 and end on June 7.

The idea of starting school in midsummer has drawn some objections because of the heat in Hawaii's classrooms. Some people also lament the loss of a long summer vacation for summer school, jobs or professional development.

Others say the year-round calendar is more efficient educationally and does not preclude summer school or professional training in the summer. Breaks during the school year can be used for coordinated training courses for teachers and remedial academics for students, who may also retain information better over a shorter summer break.

The Department surveyed school staff, students and parents, asking them to rate five calendar options. The 1-3-2 option was preferred by, or acceptable to, 80 percent of survey respondents, while other options drew more polarized responses.

A 2-3-2 calendar with a longer, two-week fall break was the most popular, but it also garnered strong negative responses. The traditional 0-2-1 calendar, with no fall break and shorter holidays during the school year, was the second most popular, but it received more unfavorable ratings than any other calendar option.

Board member Garrett Toguchi plans to push for the 2-3-2 option at tomorrow's meeting. He said yesterday that data shows that schools on this calendar are twice as likely to use the breaks to help bring struggling students up to speed as those on the 1-3-2 calendar.

Karen Knudsen, another board member, said she looked forward to settling on one calendar, although she is concerned that a longer spring break might interfere with annual student testing conducted at that time of year.

"I'm really looking forward to having a streamlined calendar, just because it's been very difficult to have the schools on so many different calendars," she said. "It's hard for parents who have students on different calendars, for the administration in terms of payroll, buses on different schedules and even for the police -- how do they know when somebody's playing hooky or not?"

Vote tomorrow The Board of Education will vote tomorrow on a new school calendar for public schools. Public testimony starts at 7 p.m. at the Queen Liliuokalani Building on Punchbowl Street. The proposal First day of school: July 27* Fall break: One week Winter break: Three weeks Spring break: Two weeks Last day of school: June 7* Summer break: Seven weeks *Start and end dates will be set in consultation with the unions. These dates are just an example. Source: Department of Education