Parents may rejoice over a major change in the calendar for the 2007-08 school year.
“This school year does eliminate the district early release days once a month,” said Nancy Horst, community relations director for Emporia public schools.
“They were not popular with parents,” she said, mentioning the challenge of finding day care for children for a half-day each month. “It was difficult for parents and the schools just didn’t feel ... it was worth keeping them when we weighed it against the inconvenience for parents.”
Parents serve on the calendar committee, she said, and a survey done before the calendar was approved showed a preference for no early releases. Teachers used those afternoons to fulfill professional development requirements set by their contract with the district.
“We have not reduced the amount of time that teachers are involved in professional collaboration and so forth, but we have scheduled it differently,” Horst said.
The new calendars will be available in early August, rather than at enrollment time, and also can be picked up at schools, sponsors and the central office.
“We do want parents to know that they will get their calendars at their schools when they go to their orientations, open houses and classroom visitations the week of Aug. 6,” Horst said.
The calendars are no longer published by the district because of the considerable expense involved, she said. The Gazette took responsibility for the calendars, and sponsors — Tyson Fresh Meats, Newman Regional Health, Williams Automotive and Longbine Auto Plaza and the school district as a contributing sponsor — help with the costs of printing.
This year, the calendars will be available in English and Spanish, both in the print version and on the district’s Web site, www.usd253.org. Because of unavoidable scheduling conflicts, it is likely that changes will be made throughout the year, and these will not be reflected in the print version of the calendar.
“We encourage families to check with the Web site calendar because we update that as soon as we know of a date change,” she said. School newsletters published regularly also will show dates, times and places of upcoming events.
This year’s calendar includes a “Quick View” of the 2008-09 school year to let parents plan ahead for the significant dates in the district.