New school calendar decision again delayed

Sisters parents and teachers packed the lecture/drama room at Sisters Middle High School Monday night, expecting a decision on whether the school district should adopt an "alternative calendar."

The board, short two members, declined to make a decision. Board member Harold Gott is in Portland while his wife undergoes cancer treatment. Jan van den Berg was out of the country on business.

But even without a decision forthcoming, the board took intensive public input on the pros and cons of a schedule which would shorten the summer break and create longer, more frequent breaks.

The alternative calendar has been touted as academically beneficial to students. Shorter summer breaks allow students to retain more from the previous semester so that less of the fall semester is spent in review.

It also facilitates eventual adoption of a "multi-track" educational system in which all students would attend school 36 weeks of the year, but at different times. This would solve space problems, expected to worsen as Sisters grows.

Multi-tracking would divide the school's population into four groups so that only three-quarters of a school's population would be present at a given time.

Many people who spoke at the meeting worried that Sisters students would lose jobs to other high-schoolers and college students on a traditional calendar if the Sisters academic year ends later than usual, at the end of June.

"Year-round school is good for elementary school, but it means that high school students are not hireable," said Leslie Bushnell. "It limits them too much."

Bushnell said she could live with the specific alternative calendar proposed by the board, which would provide for an 8-1/2 week summer break, a four-week winter break and a three-week spring break.

JT Bushnell, a student at the high school, noted that, "three months isn't a lot of time to make enough money

to last throughout the year. This sometimes forces students to work during the school year."

He pointed out that many students are athletes, and that if there was not enough time for school work, a job, and athletics that something -- usually schoolwork -- would be sacrificed.

Jim Beck argued that entering the job market late, "high school students would not be competitive even for Sisters jobs."

But lengthening the summer break would not be compatible with adoption of the alternative calendar.

According to Superintendent Steve Swisher, studies have shown that the highest amount of academic benefit comes when the longest break is four to six weeks in duration.

Although there is some benefit with an eight week break, any longer a break would not be helpful academically.

Mary Flande, the middle school athletic director, noted that during spring and winter breaks students and teacher/coaches involved in sports would still have to go to school each day, rather than benefiting from their "down time."

Parents with children in both the elementary and middle/high schools, and Camp Sherman residents whose seventh graders often enter the Sisters school system, expressed concern that their children would be on different schedules, causing scheduling and transportation problems and diminishing the time the family could spend together.

John Renner, a high school teacher (who is married to an elementary school teacher), said the bottom line is academic excellence.

"We need to think about what is best for kids first rather than vacation schedules," Renner said. "What is best for high school students is not necessarily better for little kids."

Adoption of the alternative calendar would have financial impacts, primarily from an additional school bus run, which amount to $1,000 per day.

According to Board chairman Bill Reed's informal "straw poll" of the roughly 110 people present, about one-quarter indicated they were in favor of keeping the traditional calendar.

Almost half supported using the alternative calendar for the elementary school but not the high school. There was no support for moving the high school to an alternative calendar.

The board's must decide on the alternative calendar soon. Administrators and staff made it clear that after April 30, there would not be enough time for educators and administrators to prepare for implementation of a new schedule.