Please go to this DEKALB SCHOOLS CALENDAR SURVEY to select which calendar works best for you. Please comment below with any thoughts you have.
2018-2020 Calendar PowerPoint Presentation
The DeKalb County School District’s Calendar Committee is exploring calendar options to align with other similarly sized districts in close geographic proximity. All calendar options include:
Calendar Attributes:
• 180 days of instruction for students
• 190 teacher days
• 5 teacher workdays before the first day of school
• Holidays – Labor Day, Martin L. King, Jr. Day, and President’s Day
• Thanksgiving break – one week in November
• Spring Break
2018-2019 Calendar
The recommendation for the 2018-2019 school year is a calendar similar to the current school year’s calendar. The recommendation includes the following:
• Pre-planning Week – July 30 – August 3, 2018
• First Day of School – August 6, 2018
• Last Day of School for Students – May 23, 2019
The major differences are the end of first semester for students, the beginning of second semester for students, and the designated Spring Break. Although there are several possibilities for the fall mini break, the committee will consider the testing schedules and feedback from the survey.
2019-2020
The recommendation for the 2019-2020 school year is a calendar similar to the current school year’s calendar. The recommendation includes the following:
• Pre-planning Week – July 29 – August 2, 2019
• First Day of School – August 5, 2019
• Last Day of School for Students – May 21, 2020
2018-2019 Calendar Options
Go to DeKalb Schools Calendar Survey to select which calendar works best for you.
• 3-day fall break in October
• End first semester on Friday, December 21, 2018
• Begin second semester on Monday, January 7, 2019
• 2-day winter break in February 2019
• 2-day fall break in October
• End first semester on Thursday, December 20, 2018
• Begin second semester on Monday, January 7, 2019
• 2-day winter break in February 2019
• 3-day fall break in October
• End first semester on Friday, December 21, 2018
• Begin second semester on Thursday, January 3, 2019
• 3-day winter break in February 2019
The survey window will close at 11:59 pm on January 3, 2018.
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Hi Stan,
Thanks for posting. I look for it every year and can’t ever seem to find this info. Who is on this “Calendar Committee” how are they chosen, and is there an option for a layperson (parent) to apply to be on it? Thanks!
Hello Shari,
I asked that exact question. Here is the response from Lisa Martin (Chief Academic Officer, Curriculum & Instruction) and Stacy Stepney (Director of Elective and Special Instruction)
“The 2018-2020 Calendar Committee is comprised of parents, students, teachers, principals, district office staff, and community/business partners.
Stakeholder Representation: The Calendar Committee representation consists of a variety of stakeholder groups, including students, parents, community members, school-level staff, and district-level advisors. Principals received a memorandum in September to identify representatives to participate, if selected, on the District Calendar committee. Each school was to select six representatives from the identified stakeholder groups to participate in the random selection process: one student, two parents, one community member, and two school-level staff members.
Random selection was conducted to identify a cross-section of representatives to participate on the District Calendar Committee. Due to the nature of the task, Calendar Committee members have been assured anonymity from the Central Office level.
Additional Input: Teacher Groups/Organizations have an opportunity to weigh in on the calendar options through teacher membership on the calendar committee and/or through the stakeholder survey.
“
The DeKalb Schools District Dance they play when they don’t want to give out information. Next week I’ll send an email stating that the calendar committee is subject to Open Records Requests. Who wants to guess what their response will be? We should start a pool. I say they come back and say they can’t release the names of the calendar committee because it would be a FERPA violation.
Like earlier spring break since we get out in May! 2 solid weeks for winter break! Keep full week off at Thanksgiving Just my opinion!
PLEASE give us 2 full weeks for Winter Break!! Also, have they ever considered the Jewish holidays for fall break?
Jewish holidays don’t seem to be a high priority. You bring up a good point.
It would be nice if “none of the above” were an option. It’s awful to start so early. Other parts of the country don’t start (or end) so early, so it’s difficult to get family together, participate in summer camps, and so forth. It is still summer and hot outside. In many schools, the air conditioning is not reliable, and it’s not good for the kids to have recess outside in the heat. Busses have to be stifling in the afternoon on the way home. We also don’t really need a fall or February break. It seems like you lose the day before and after a break because the kids can’t concentrate, and some parents take their kids out the day before the break to make it a little longer. A week at Thanksgiving is nice, but it would also be nice to start two or three weeks later in the summer.
Interesting that all of this District Dance verbiage came from a district policy that says simply, “…the Superintendent shall appoint a committee to draft a proposed school calendar.” And “The committee members shall represent all segments of the DeKalb County School District.” As with so many responses from DCSS, it seems to generate more questions for them than answers.
• How many folks make up this committee?
• Who are they?
• What schools/districts are represented?
• What type of “community members” are on this committee?
• Board policy calls for the school calendar to be adopted annually; why are two calendars being considered at the same time?
• What “nature” of this task requires anonymity?
• Is there a secret Calendar Committee handshake?
• How does a random selection generate a specific cross section of committee members?
• If I, in a weak moment, decided that I wanted to serve on the next randomly selected committee, how, and to whom, would I apply?
Stan, I would certainly support your submitting an Open Records Request, and it should be granted. Unless someone has asked for the school records of committee members I don’t see how they could bring up FERPA with a straight face.
Why do all of the options seem to include Inclement Weather make up days during Thanksgiving AND Spring Break? Is anyone delusional enough to think that students (or teachers and subs for that matter) will show up on those days, even if we have to use them? No one is going to miss any days during those two full weeks of break. That’s ridiculous and very poor planning.
So Colorado schools snow days are on Saturdays or tacked on to the calendar school year such as after Memorial
Weekend. This makes sense. Taking days from Thanksgiving and Winter Break is not the greatest idea. I like your idea of an Open RecordsRequest. Justveho are these people that are on this committee? Stan there are so many holes here ….,,
Mr. Jester,
Is this the calendar for next school year? I noticed that Clayton, Henry and Gwinnett have already posted their calendars for the 2018-19 school year. Does this mean we have not made a definite decision for next school year?
Excellent comments thus far.
Correct. The calendars covering school years 2018 – 2020 will be discussed and approved in January.
Engaging Scenario: Imagine you are the one person serving on the calendar committee who lost the draw. You have to design three calendar options. You don’t really care when students, teachers, and school-based employees go to school. When twenty minutes is added to a school day, the additional time doesn’t affect you. When a work day is cancelled, it doesn’t matter to you. The lack of subs doesn’t matter and won’t be an issue during scheduled breaks.
Performance tasks: Create a calendar that looks nothing like the calendars of other big districts like Cobb and Gwinnett. Ignore facts and reason. Destroy any excitement for an unexpected snow day.
Instructional resources: None. It’s not about learning. It’s about appearances.
Standards: Low.
dekalbteacher: good points. Back in the late 1990s the school calendar had 3 snow days built in- all on Fridays in April and May (after Spring Break)- if we didn’t need them, they were days off from school. This was clearly understood and seemed to work. Eventually, parents started to complain because there were years that we didn’t use the snow days and the parents were responsible for caring for their children on those days. DCSD now has 1 day/year and is going to jump all the way to 10 days/year- why? Parents, staff, teachers plan Thanksgiving and Spring Break vacations months in advance- but those days can now be taken away because of weather, just ridiculous.
Stan: will these possible make up days during vacation weeks be considered critical days? If so, teachers are going to be forced to decide between their pre-paid vacation plans or 1-2 full days of pay from DCSD.
Thus far, I don’t think there is a priority level associated with the various make up days. I’m not a fan of scheduling make up days during major holidays.
Who is on the calendar committee? – I asked that question again last week and reminded them it was subject to Open Records. I finally got a response yesterday. I can’t believe I didn’t see this one coming.
Processing your request, “We will pause [board] responses until the week of January 3-5, 2018 due to Winter Holiday and staff on approved vacation. ”
Was a calendar decision made at the meeting yesterday?