Pick school schedule and stick with it

THE ISSUE The BOE has decided again to change the calendar for public school classes.

SCHOOL will be out for a longer summer with the state Board of Education's approval of yet another change in the public education calendar. The modification comes two years after what's called a unified calendar was established, requiring public schools to conform to a schedule of start and end dates and vacation periods.

The new timetable conflicts with one of the key reasons the summer break was shortened to seven weeks in the last go-round -- the view that students forget what they've learned when out of the classroom for long periods.

However, the current schedule didn't allow enough time for summer school programs that some students need to keep up. In addition, fewer teachers were willing to volunteer for summer classes and schools began to shed programs, with only 41 offering them in 2007, compared to 76 in 2005. So the board extended summer breaks to nine weeks starting in the 2009-2010 school year, cutting a week each from winter and spring vacations.

The unified calendar was legislatively mandated to simplify payroll and other administrative purposes and to accommodate parents who weren't happy with having their children on different schedules depending on their schools. At the same time, the condensed summer break was touted as helpful to learning, but the board and school officials apparently did not expect the effects on remedial programs and the reluctance of teachers to give up their time off.

Though Schools Superintendent Patricia Hamamoto told the board the longer break would benefit students, she could not say for certain. The contradiction of reasons in advocating for the succession of schedules is not assuring.