For the next school year, Sampson County Schools is moving forward with a new calendar with earlier dates for the first and last days of classes.
During a Monday meeting, the Board of Education unanimously approved an Innovative Year-Round (IYR) calendar for the 2020-2021 academic year. For students, school will begin Aug. 10, 2020 and the last day is May 27, 2021.
Last week, several board members voted against placing the IYR calendar on the consent agenda for approval because of concerns about families not having enough time to plan, but everyone was in agreement Monday to move away from the current traditional calendar. For the 2019-2020 period, school began Aug. 26 and is ending June 5, with the exception of Sampson Early College High School (SECHS).
A survey showed that 80 percent of teachers from Sampson County are in favor of the IYR option.
One of those educators was Ashley Stanley, Teacher of the Year for SECHS. During the public comment portion of the meeting, Stanley said she works under a calendar similar to the IYR at SECHS and during her time at Union High School, she worked under a traditional calendar. Although about 20 percent of the teachers were against the IYR calendar, Stanley believes it works for them. She said the schedule would also be better for students who would like to take vocational courses.
“We are dealing with a situation where we have many students at the high school level that are taking (Career and College Promise) and dual enrollment programs,” Stanley said. “This would allow our students to have a better calendar that would put them in a position to complete those programs more successfully.”
With the majority of teachers in favor, she added that it shouldn’t be something taken lightly since they’re the ones with students in the classrooms. After having conversations with teachers against it, she said some of them changed their minds once the benefits were mentioned. According to officials, some of the benefits include making room in the spring for award shows, celebrations, testing and field days, which takes away from instructional time. Optional workdays are also listed for the summer months of June and July. There would also be summer opportunities for students as well.
“I really think that all teachers can come together to make this calendar work for the success of our students, to have even semesters, not shortchange first semester with less days, rushing to get our curriculum done, putting undue pressure on our students and teachers when we could give them more time,” she said. “This I think would put us in a position to decrease teacher burnout, decrease student academic fatigue, because we would have a break every month. There would be a workday or an intercession every month that would allow teachers to catch up.”
Stanley believes the calendar would also give students and teacher mental breaks, in addition to having time for matters outside of school such as doctor appointments. She stressed that it’s the overall better choice for students.
“I really think we are a county and school system that prides ourselves on proficiency, growth, and setting our students up for future success,” she said. “If that’s what we want to be about, then I think we should give them a calendar that is going to put us and the students in the best position to achieve that.”
There was also a few concerns raised about starting school in August with high temperatures. Jackie Holt, a Midway Middle School teacher assistant and school bus driver, spoke about this matter with the board. On behalf of other drivers, she brought buses not being equipped with air conditioning. Using Midway Middle School as an example, Holt said there are 10 buses and only five have a working air conditioning.
“We live in the South,” Holt said. “The heat is extreme in the afternoon hours in August. The heat index can reach well into the 100s. A bus sits in the heat, all day, closed up, and when students first get on for their afternoon ride, the temperatures on the bus can also be around 100 degrees. Yes, as the bus moves on its route, we have the windows down of course, but it’s literally like a hairdryer blowing hot air. The students are red-faced and profusely sweating once they arrive home.”
Holt said the routes could be about an hour long. For Holt, her route last 30 minutes longer on crowded buses.
“We can have 50 students on our buses some afternoons, with several of them having to sit three to a seat,” Holt said. “When you have that many bodies, you can attest to the fact that heat is a factor. I have experienced as a driver, feelings of nausea and dizziness and others have felt the same way. Students have always complained about feeling lightheaded and nauseous and that was in late August and early September. We can only assume that two extra weeks of driving earlier would only result in more of the same.”
She added that some students may have medical conditions such as asthma that may be affected by the heat. Holt also expressed how starting school earlier may turn away people from signing up.
“Bus drivers have an extremely high stressed job,” Holt said. “We’re entrusted with very precious cargo and we only want to ensure their safety above all else, including comfort. This is not a matter of being comfortable. It is a safety issue as many of my fellow drivers would all agree.”
Board chair Kim Schmidlin said it was impressive that comments came from employees of the district. She said the district sought to hear from the community and all stakeholders at the work session and thanked district employees for their efforts. Board member Tracy Dunn made a request for district leaders to let the public know about the calendar and to receive input from all stakeholders. Schmidlin said a lot of consideration was put into the calendar.
“It’s not been anything that we have taken lightly,” she said. “And we hear your concerns.”
According to legal requirements, students must attend school for 185 days or 1,025 instructional hours. Ten-month employees are under a 215-day requirement, which includes student days, holidays, annual leave and workdays. The IYR calendar includes 87 days in the first semester and 91 in the second. When asked, teachers said some of the positives was having a workday/break every month and having a calendar aligned to Clinton City Schools, and exams before Christmas break and a full semester to teach in the fall.
Before the vote, Board Member Pat Usher wanted Holt’s concerns addressed with calendar being approved. Vicki Westbrook, director of transportation, for Sampson County Schools, spoke about the matters and said there’s about 14 buses without air conditioning. During the summer, six of them will be replaced. For the other eight, the district is waiting for school funding, which may com within the next two years. Between 12 to 15 have air conditioning problems.
“We usually work on those or the drivers let us know,” Westbrook said. “Over the summer, when we have them in, that’s when we do a lot of our major AC work.”
Board member Tim Register echoed some of his comments made during the work session about concerns from parents with hardships or situations such as vacations or mission trips already planned for August. He made a request for Superintendent Dr. Bracy and administrators to work out ways to handle schedule conflicts.
“We want to try to accommodate those situations that are going to be here the first summer,” Register said about the new calendar. “After the first summer, we shouldn’t have those type of issues. Hopefully, all those can be worked out on an individual basis.”
Register believes people closest to the situation are the ones with the best viewpoint.
“I believe that’s the case with the professional educators that we have in this county,” Register said. “From the input that we’ve seen, that’s been giving from parents, a lot of parents are in agreement as well, so I would certainly support us adopting the calendar as well.”
Although it may come with hardships, Schmidlin said the calendar makes sense from an equity standpoint and the amount of days in each semester.
“I think ultimately, it’s going to be the best thing for our students,” she said. “This year is going to be a tough one to get through, but I do hope to see flexibility from our administrators for people who already have planned vacations. I’ve heard from some of those parents and hopefully, we can work through those things and work to make sure our buses are cooled.”
The full 2020-2021 IYR calendar is available for the public to view at https://bit.ly/2uH96dU or through the district’s website at www.sampson.k12.nc.us
