Results of Modified School Calendar Survey presented to Board

The results of parents and district employees on a modified school calendar that, if adopted, would stretch out the instruction year and shorten summer recess were given last night to the Board of Trustees for the School District of Oconee County, explains Associate Superintendent of Administration Steve Hanvey. “Well, we sent out surveys to our families and honestly I’m a little disappointed in the response we got back. We only got about 12% of them back, but it was about 55% in favor of the modified calendar and 45% opposed from our parents. We also surveyed our staff and got about 55% of them to respond and it was 54% in favor and 46% opposed. I shared that with the board last night and they asked that we gather more information. I will talk with our Parent Advisory Group again as well as business folks in the community like day cares and those that might be directly affected if that change were to take place. I will bring information back to the board in December or January. They would like to decide if that is something they’re are interested in us pursuing early in the year next year, so if there was a change, people would have plenty of opportunity to adjust. I would be remiss if I didn’t remind folks that this is not a SDOC initiative or push, this came out of our meetings with our Parent Advisory Groups. So, we are just doing as they asked, which is surveying folks to try to find out if that is something that our community would be interested in changing to in using a modified calendar.” Seven thousand surveys were sent to parents. Parents voted in favor of a modified calendar 419-349. Sixteen hundred employees were asked to vote. The workforce approved the modified calendar 415-356. The item will be placed on an agenda for action after Jan. 1, 2019. If the change is made, the calendar would still reflect 180 school days, which is a state requirement, but would shorten the traditional 10-week summer break to six weeks.