School’s out for summer — coming back in August

Despite grumbling from some parents and from businesses that employ students in the summer, Sisters schools will re-open in the last week of August this year.

The earlier-than-normal start was prompted by a late effort to add five days back onto the calendar when it became clear that state funding would allow it.

Superintendent Ted Thonstad told the school board Monday night that the district “struggled with how we add those five days back and not add them at the end of the year.”

Thonstad said, “I think it’s better educationally, better to put them at the beginning instead of the end when everybody is ready to be done.”

Ray’s Food Place Manager Jeff McDonald noted that the last week of August is the store’s fourth busiest week of the year. Last year, he had 17 teens working more than 600 hours that week. Losing them will impact the business. Other establishments, including Black Butte Ranch, employ teens in the summertime.

Cheryl Rhea of the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce cited a survey that indicated that many parents “thought the two-week spring break was excessive” and thought days should be added then.

Thonstad said it “would be very difficult at this point to change the calendar for 2005-06.”

He noted that teachers had already planned their year.

While arguing that it is too late to change the calendar this year, school board chairman Glen Lasken said the issue is “very much an open book for the following year and the years thereafter.”

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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