District 203 Continues to Discuss 2013-14 Calendar

students, staff and parents will have to wait at least another month before they find out what the school calendar for 2013-14 will look like as board members continue to mull it over. 

Board members failed to reach a consensus on approving the 2013-14 calendar after a 3-3 vote took place at last night’s meeting, with board member Dave Weeks abstaining. 

Structuring a balanced calendar in terms of how many school days each semester has is one of the major concerns for some administrators. The current proposed calendar shows a second semester having ten additional school days, or two extra weeks, compared to the first semester. 

“Two weeks is just too much for me,” said board vice president Jackie Romberg.

President Mike Jaensch agreed with Romberg and suggested moving the proposed 2013-14 start date from Wednesday, August 21 to Monday, August 19 as a compromise.

“Ten academic days difference between semesters I can’t support,” Jaensch said. “In my mind, a good compromise would be to start school on that Monday, the 19.”

The and now some board members believe it's time to finally approve a calendar.

“I think with competing interests we’re trying to please everybody and pleasing nobody,” said board member Suzyn Price. “I’m reluctant to send it back, you know, when you put all of these things together this is just, this is a game of Jenga, How many sticks can you pull until it falls down?”.

Price voted in favor of approving last night’s proposed calendar along with Terry Fielden and Jim Dennison. Susan Crotty voted "no" as did Romberg and Jaensch, while Weeks abstained. 

“I’m going to abstain from the vote no matter what’s proposed,” Weeks said. “It frustrates me that year after year that I’ve been on the board we have a committee, that has representation of all of our interests groups, that we just pretty much ignore what they say and spend countless hours as a board discussing.”

The calendar will now be sent back to the calendar committee to be redrafted and then brought to the board for a vote on July 16. It is currently available for public review on the district's website.