School to start late next year

School will start later in Sisters next year, according to the 2003-04 calendar the Sisters School Board adopted at its last meeting.

But the board's discussion suggested that it might make some minor changes later.

The decision seems firm on three points: School will start later than usual, on Monday, September 15, the beginning of the third week of September; Christmas vacation will remain two weeks long, as in the past; and spring break will be only one week long rather than two as in the recent past (including this year).

The late start is occasioned by a desire to move into the new high school building before classes begin. Originally, the building wasn't expected to be ready until December. But this winter's mild weather has accelerated the work and will make it possible to occupy most of the building by mid-September.

Work on the final portions can be arranged so as not to interfere with classes.

Aside from a late September start and a shorter spring break, the calendar features two other notable changes from the past: Thanksgiving vacation will consume a full week rather than just the traditional Thursday and Friday. And the school year will end on June 18, a week later than this year.

The sum of the changes will produce 173 "student contact days" for the high school (170 for the elementary and middle schools), compared with 167 this year. This year was originally planned for 172 days but five were cut to accommodate the state revenue shortfall.

The 173 days in 2003-04 will be distributed unevenly among the three trimesters into which Sisters divides the school year. The first, or fall, trimester will have 62 days, the second (winter) 57 and the third (spring) only 54.

That fact disturbed School Board Chairman Jeff Smith, who told his colleagues: "I am opposed because it just seems to me the unevenness of the length of the trimesters is a serious flaw and is something we will want to remedy."

Board members and school administrators attending the meeting all agreed that the major advantage of the proposed calendar is that it brings the fall and spring trimesters to a close at the beginning of the traditional Christmas and spring vacation periods, respectively.

The major disadvantage is the one Smith emphasized, the imbalance in the number of days of instruction among the three grading periods.

There appears to be no way of achieving both goals -- ending the trimesters at natural breaks and making the trimesters equal length -- in the same calendar.

High School Principal Boyd Keyser acknowledged that his staff is ambivalent about the choice between natural breaks and better trimester balance. Superintendent Steve Swisher said he shares the ambivalence but nonetheless recommended the proposal as the best he could devise.

The motion to approve the calendar was withdrawn and recast several times before the board finally voted 4 to 1 for a simple declaration of approval.

But the debate made it clear that the calendar may be subject to "tweaking," as some members put it, before being locked into place.