Beginning next fall, the Gilmer School System will operate under a new, unified calendar.
A survey was open to students, parents and teachers and they were presented with three calendar options.
The overwhelming favorite garnered 60.6 percent of the vote. The board of education approved said calendar at its meeting last Thursday, March 19.
Gilmer superintendent Dr. Shanna Downs discussed the selection process at the board’s work session three days prior.
“An email was sent to parents, students and staff of the Gilmer School System with a link to the calendar survey,” she said. “Each link could only be used once, and we were able to see the survey responses by email address to ensure every email was only able to vote once.”
Options were simply named calendar one, calendar two and calendar three.
“We received 1,538 responses. Sixty percent prefer calendar one, which is the calendar that’s almost identical to Cherokee County and very similar to Cobb and Paulding counties as well,” Downs said. “Calendar two received 28.74 percent of the vote, and calendar three, which is essentially Fannin County’s calendar, only received 10.66 percent of the vote.”
Parents, students and staff received an email containing the link to the calendar survey Feb. 9. Votes were accepted through March 4.
Calendar one has the earliest first day of school (Aug. 3) of the three options. It also keeps students in class the latest (May 28). However, it has the most built-in holidays and breaks for students and teachers with 32.
Once professional learning holidays are accounted for, which are workdays for teachers, the number of student holidays jumps to 35 for the year. The only months that do not contain built-in holidays and breaks are October and March.
Gilmer’s current calendar for the 2019-2020 school year began Aug. 7 with dismissal set for May 22. It contains 28 days off for students, which includes two professional learning days.
Board vice chairman Ronald Watkins voiced his concerns with calendar one’s 35 days off for students at the work session after Downs announced the voting results.
“Basically, you’re starting teachers back in the last week of July (with preplanning beginning July 27 prior to the first day of school),” he said. “For people who are in (employed by) the school system, this is a good calendar. My wife’s in the school system, but I don’t work for the government. I don’t get off all these holidays, and I feel like it’s putting a burden on the community.
“You get kids back in school and in a routine and then boom there’s another vacation. Basically, to me, this is setting up year-round school.”
Downs replied, “If you look at the survey responses to this, it’s a mixture of students, teachers and parents who voted. Sixty percent of a vote is a large percentage.”
That prompted Watkins to ask, “Why did the students get to vote on what was on the calendar?”
“Well it affects them very directly,” Downs said.
“Elementary school kids could vote?” Watkins wondered.
“They did,” said Downs. “They got sent a survey link.”
Watkins concluded by adding, “That’s like letting prisoners run the asylum. I’m just saying. I’m voting ‘no.’”
Calendar two had students start the school year Aug. 6 with the final day set for May 26. It had 26 days off for holidays and breaks, which increased to 30 once professional learning days were factored.
Calendar three offered the latest start (Aug. 7) and earliest dismissal (May 21). Student holidays would have been trimmed to 24 plus three more for professional learning days.
Calendar three cut out September’s fall break, as well as winter break in February. Students would have had six days off for spring break in April compared to five days for calendars one and two.
Watkins stuck to his plan three days later when Downs recommended a motion to adopt calendar one at the board meeting.
Board chairman Michael Bramlett, and members Jim Parmer, Tom Ocobock and Doug Pritchett all voted in favor of calendar one, and it passed by a 4 to 1 vote.
Downs is in favor of the new calendar and believes its makes for a better school environment.
“As a parent and educator, I like the calendar, and I voted for that one,” she said during a Monday interview. “I like having a consistent six weeks of instruction and then a break. Whenever you have a good long one-week break, whenever you come back, the behavior referrals go way down significantly. The kids just seem to come back ready to learn.”
The new calendar will unify holidays and breaks at all district schools. In previous years, breaks for Gilmer High and elementary school students did not always coincide.
“Every other year, leading up to this one since I’ve been here, we have let all schools’ governance teams have one (their own calendar),” Downs said during a Monday interview.
“But they (schools) were all almost on the exact same calendar. They all seemed to consistently have the exact same spring break, all had the two weeks at Christmas, all had a fall break in October and a winter break in the middle of February, but they were never the same days exactly ... they were just similar.”
To view all three calendar options, visit Gilmerschools.com.