11/03/2014 – School Calendar

FY2016 School Calendar



Summary
Each school year, DeKalb County School District convenes a group of stakeholders to form a committee charged with exploring calendar options. The 2015-2016 District Calendar Committee included representation from these stakeholder groups: parents, students, school-level staff, principals, district-level staff, and community members.
In accordance with Policy AEA, the 2015-2016 Calendar Committee developed calendar options and submitted a calendar recommendation to the Superintendent. The calendar is instructionally sound and aligns with similarly sized districts in close geographic proximity.

Details
The 2015-2016 calendar contains the following features:

  • 180 days of instruction for students
  • 190 teacher days including one evening workday comprised of parent-teacher conferences (2 per semester)
  • 5 teacher workdays before the first day of school
  • Holidays for all – Labor Day, Martin L. King, Jr. Day, and President’s Day
  • Thanksgiving break – November 23-27, 2015
  • Winter break – December 21, 2015 – January 1, 2016
  • Post planning 1st semester/Pre-planning 2nd semester – January 4, 2016
  • First day of 2nd semester – January 5, 2016
  • Spring Break – April 4-8, 2016 (coincides with most metro area districts
  • Last day of school for students falls during the week of May 23-27, 2016
  • Post planning 2nd semester falls during the week of May 23-27, 2016


Transcription
Michael Thurmond – DeKalb Schools Superintendent
I request that the agenda item 2015-2016 School Calendar be pulled from the agenda.  In accordance with policy AEA-R(0), the district calendar committee convened in September to develop the 2015 calendar recommendation.  The calendar committee was composed of a variety of shareholders including students, parents, business and community partners, school level staff and district level advisers.
The districts calendar committee was charged with developing calendar options by considering basic calendar parameters including but not limited to the number of days per year, the number of days per semester, inclemate weather, emergency days, spring holidays, testing windows, and other metro area school district calendars.
The committee members were divided into work groups with the purpose of developing several calendar options.  Also, the members obtained stake holder input through a survey questionnaire instead of a vote.  The total number of surveys completed was 6,020.
At this time the calendar committee is requesting permission to delay the agenda item – primary because the Georgia DOE has not released the 2016 testing schedule.  Therefore the committee members could not finalize the calendar options without possibly impacting the administration of the Georgia Milestone assessment system and other assessments critical to the system, gifted identification.
Therefore we are requesting that this item be removed and placed on the December agenda once we get more information from the state.
John Coleman – Board Member
We anticipate the schedules be released this month?
Stacey Stepney – Director, High School Teaching and Learning – Co Chair of Calendar Committee
We have been waiting for a few months and hope it will be released soon.
Marshall Orson – Board Member
Do have any expectation that the Georgia Milestone testing is vastly different than the CRCT schedule?
Stepney
I don’t know what to expect.
Orson
I’m concerned, I don’t want this to slip too far.  We have found ourselves in the position of being one of the last school systems to put out a calendar.  I think some school systems have put out a projected calendar for next year.  I think we’re pretty much reduced to our start date and filling in behind the start date.
I appreciate trying to be thorough, but I prefer we also don’t put out a calendar so late the parents can’t plan.
Thurmond
That’s fair.  Ms. Stepney told me this morning that only 4 districts have published their calendar.
Orson
4 metro district or 4 state-wide
Stepney
4 metro districts
Orson
That’s a big chunk of the metro.  Can you share the survey results, so we can begin to understand the parameters that were asked and not wait.
Stepney
Sure.