School board adopts calendar

Students will start school after Labor Day next year, and finish in the middle of June.

The Sisters School Board approved a draft calendar for the 2000-01 school year that starts on September 5, 2000 and ends on June 19, 2001. The calendar includes a two-week spring break.

The draft was chosen from among four proposals.

Schools superintendent Steve Swisher favored the chosen option because it matches up well with college calendars and offers an eventual creation of a summer school quarter.

He said the later start would also mean less classroom time in summer heat and accommodate local employers who don't want to lose their staff before the Labor Day weekend.

The board will continue to refine the calendar to balance the length of trimesters.

In other business, the principals of Sisters' three schools presented school improvement plans to the board.

Principal Tim Comfort said Sisters Elementary School would continue to focus intense effort on building reading skills, citing research showing that students need to be reading by the third grade to ensure future success.

The school has already reached high standards, Comfort noted, but students need work on "technical" reading, or reading for specific information.

"We still have 1/3 of our kids who aren't real good at being able to locate information," he said.

Middle school principal Rich Shultz said his school plans to focus on improving communication among staff, administrators, parents and students.

The middle school also plans to refine its use of student work portfolios as an assessment tool and work on linking grades to state standards.

According to high school principal Boyd Keyser, the high school's improvement plans are built around the "core beliefs" defined in recent community forums.

These include creating a "caring community," making sure that "learning is positive and engaging," "setting and achieving high standards," and ensuring that students leave school capable of succeeding in the wider world.