» MPS calendar:

Board removes K-8 campuses from plan

The Milwaukee School Board votes 8-0 to limit the early start calendar change to specific schools.

Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Darienne Driver has spent weeks championing a proposal to shift all schools to a unified calendar that would start in mid-August and end in mid-May, leaving time for an optional term in June to allow students to earn more credits.

The district is in need of an urgent change to maximize learning time for children, Driver has said. The MPS graduation rate has fallen to 58%, lower than any comparable bigcity metropolitan district. More than half of ninthgraders — 56% — fail at least one core academic course. For many children who lag academically, struggles start early and snowball over time. Problems are compounded by student mobility from school to school with different start dates, Driver said.

But School Board members on Thursday night instead voted 8-0 to limit the early start calendar change to specific schools, including MPS high schools, 6-8 middle schools, schools on the International Baccalaureate calendar and year-round schools. Any year-round school that isn’t failing can opt out, an official at the School Board office said Friday.

The shift will be most noticeable for traditional high schools and middle schools because schools on the IB calendar and yearround schools already start in mid-August or slightly earlier.

For now, K-8 schools will remain on the traditional district calendar that will start on Sept. 5, 2017. But board members voted for more research and dialogue for the policy for K-8 schools.

Uphill battle

The latest action shows the difficulty of changing entrenched practices in an under-performing district.

Board member Michael Bonds on Thursday night said he couldn’t see how the calendar change alone would help to improve achievement without adding more mandatory days and hours of instruction to the academic year.

Driver said starting in August would give students more learning time ahead of testing windows for state exams in the spring, as well as Advanced Placement and IB examinations. She has also said the varying calendars make scheduling professional development a challenge, and result in higher costs for it, too.

“A common calendar might help provide stability across our neighborhoods,” she added Thursday night, speaking to the issue of student mobility.

But recently released results of a district-led survey show less than half of responding parents and community members supported the districtwide early-start calendar change. Children who spoke at the board meeting Thursday said they didn’t wish to go to school in August in buildings without air conditioning. The teachers union also stood in opposition to the earlystart calendar, saying more discussion was needed.

Board members on Thursday approved the idea of an extra June term for high schools and middle schools, but it’s unclear whether children will enroll in it. In the district survey, 70% of responding students said they were unlikely to participate in the proposed “J term.” And 80% said they were unlikely to take summer school courses.

State law says Wisconsin schools can’t start before Sept. 1, but the board can receive waivers from the state for underperforming or specialty schools. State Superintendent Tony Evers has backed Driver’s proposal and said he would grant that waiver for more schools. He has also indicated he would support pursuing a change in state law so that the entire district could move to an early-start calendar in 2018.

The calendar item approved by the board’s budget committee Thursday will go to the full board Dec. 22, but because the budget committee includes all members of the School Board, the outcome is unlikely to change.

MPS has posted on its website the full audio of the budget committee discussing the calendar change.