Some districts, like Belton Independent School District, decided this year to wait until mid-January before having final exams, with nearly two weeks of holiday vacation time in between.
“As a district, we develop our calendar every year with the recommendations of a community group of teachers, parents, and business leaders,” BISD deputy superintendent Susan Kincannon said.
“Earlier this year we debated the pros and cons,” Ms. Kincannon said. “And we decided to try to keep the same number of school days between each semester.”
BISD has nearly an even split of about 87 school days per semester.
At Temple Independent School District, students will wrap up their first semester when the district goes on holiday break this week. Because the semester ends before break, TISD students will have a longer second semester, with about 97 days in the second half of the school year, compared to 78 in the first.
“Years ago it was not uncommon for districts to try to align their calendars to end their first semester before the beginning of holiday break,” John Hancock, TISD director of student services, said. “They did it primarily because they didn’t want students to have a lag in instruction time before their final exams.
“We decided to go to the format we’re using now because we wanted to better meet the needs of our students,” he said. “We felt like it’s unfair for them to go for a long time period without instruction, and ask them to wrap up classes almost immediately afterwards.”
There are positives and negatives to both options, he said.
In 2006, the Legislature voted to force public school districts to open the last week of August, largely at the tourism industry’s urging. Districts that began the school year earlier and finished their first marking period before holiday break had to make the kinds of decisions Temple and Belton have made.
At Temple’s private schools, the beginning of the school year comes earlier, allowing students to end their first semester before the holidays.
“I think the biggest benefit is that we don’t have a big break before the students take their exams,” said Central Texas Christian School superintendent Ed Thomas, who noted the school has had a similar schedule for the last 10 years. “There’s only one year I remember when we decided to end the first semester after break.
“I can’t say we’ll always be able to do it because there may be issues sometimes with when we’re able to start or end, and with breaks in scheduling, but I think it’s in the students’ best interest,” Thomas said. “Most of the feedback we get from students and parents is positive. They like being able to start a new year with a fresh slate.”
Ms. Kincannon said the BISD is exploring its options for the 2009-10 year and may decide at its February board meeting.
“There are different things we have to look at,” Ms. Kincannon said. “We have a number of students in AP (Advanced Placement) classes or students who are dual-enrollment. We have to explore whether it’s in their best interest because there can be conflicts if one semester is longer than the other.”
A couple of students at Belton High School said they would prefer if their semester ended before break.
“We’ve ended it before break in the past, and I always liked it better,” said Devan Parker, 17, a junior at BHS. “It’s a lot more stressful to have (exams) right after vacation.”
Parker said that during the upcoming holiday break she would have two or three projects to work on and will have to study. “I hope the district decides to change its schedule in the future.”
Morgan Toone, 18, a senior, echoed Parker’s thoughts.
“It makes more sense from the students’ perspective to have the semester end before break,” Ms. Toone said. “You can forget a lot of the material you’ve been taught when you have a two-week break - I don’t want to spend my whole vacation studying.”
Parents in Temple seem to enjoy having their students end the semester before break. “I would rather have my daughter finish everything up before we go on vacation,” said Lauren Smith, who has two daughters in TISD. “We travel to Lubbock every year to visit their grandparents - they really don’t do any studying.”
A spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency said it has no opinions on the issue and no studies have been performed.
“That’s an issue that is handled on the local level,” the spokeswoman said. “We believe that each district is going to do what’s in its best interest.”
