The Oswego 308 School board unanimously approved the 2013-14 Oswego 308 school calendar, which featured an earlier start date, removed half days and pushed all school improvement days to the beginning and end of the semesters.
"Achievement is our bottom line," said Superintendent Matthew Wendt of the calendar. "As long as we can say student achievement is improving, we’re headed in the right direction."
The vote was unanimous Monday evening, although board president Bill Walsh said he did have reservations about the earlier start date of the calendar, which is on Monday, Aug. 19 instead of previous years where school started in the middle of the week Wednesday or Thursday.
"I do not like the calendar," Walsh said bluntly. "But the expectation I have out of you and your team is that student achievement is going to move forward," addressed to Wendt.
"This is one tool out of many. I do not like the calendar, but because of that [expectation] I will support it."
The calendar has been arranged so that semester will end prior to winter break, which begins on Monday, Dec. 23. Teacher institute days have also been removed from the middle of the school year and will only take place before semester starts or at the very end of second semester.
Early dismissal days have been eliminated, save for a few days for parent-teacher conferences.
School will also ender sooner, with the last day of school now being Thursday, May 22, the week before Memorial Day.
There will still be 175 student-attendance days in the new calendar, which meets the state requirement. The previous two District 308 school calendars also had 175 student attendance days.
To see the full calendar for 2013-14, see the attached file.
Teacher Institute Days are supposed to be used for professional development and growth so that said instructional practice can be used in the classroom to help enhance student achievement. Just how many teachers are going to be paying attention to any training when they are going to be daydreaming about their upcoming days off, vacation trips, and happy hour to celebrate the end of the year! Not to mention all those teachers that won't be coming back due to retirements, RIF's, or because they've been given the good ol' heave-ho! I hope they take good notes so they can put that practice to good use the following year!!!
Endless nights of grading papers and planning after hours.... furthering your education during the summer to help better the kids. I know several teachers that work 50-60 hours a week. They deserve the summers off. Afterall, if it's so easy then.. they why didn't you become one?
As I mentioned previously, my issue is the waste of an "Institute Day" at the end of the school year, when we know it would best be served sometime in the middle of the semester.