Schools consider calendar changes Broward board seeks feedback on giving students a full week off for Thanksgiving

A week

Cool!

It’s not a guarantee, but it is an option under consideration by Broward schools for the 2020-21 school year.

An online poll asks parents and school staff to vote for their favorite school calendar for next year, but don’t get too excited. The School Board is not promising to go with the majority vote.

Two years ago, the board also sought feedback but went with a different calendar from the one off for Thanksgiving? most voters preferred, said parent Debbie Espinoza, a Cooper City High parent and vice chair of the District Advisory Council, which advises the School Board. Here are the options: School starts Aug. 19 and ends June 7 with a three-day Thanksgiving break. First semester would end after winter break, on Jan. 6.

School starts Aug. 19 with a last day of June 9 and a weeklong Thanksgiving break. First semester would end Jan. 7.

School opens on Aug. 24 and finishes on June 10 with a threeday Thanksgiving break. First would end Jan. 11.

There are several interest groups that have strong opinions about the best school calendar.

High school principals often prefer an early start date so first semester can end before winter break, ensuring students take end-of-semester exams before their two-week vacation.

But some elementary school parents like a later start to coordinate with northeastern sleepaway camps, which often end in late August, and summer vacations with family from across the semester country who start school closer to Labor Day.

Although Florida schools traditionally start in August, many South Florida parents, raised in other parts of the country that start school around Labor Day, have resisted what they see as efforts to open school during the hottest weeks of the summer. Broward schools started on Aug. 14 this year.

“I’m not sure when August became the new September,” said parent Jamie Horwitz of Weston, a Michigan native. “Growing up, summer always meant June, July and August. Now, schools in Florida are starting earlier and earlier and teachers have to report back in July.”

She also questioned the proposed Aug. 19 opening date, a Wednesday.

“I don’t see any benefit to starting on a Wednesday. For working parents, it’s more difficult to find activities for your kids for two work days versus weeklong camps,” Horwitz said.

At the same time, others have urged the district to extend

Thanksgiving break, which is currently three days long.

Many students skip the first two days of that week to visit family for the holiday, creating a high rate of classroom absences and lessons that need to be retaught because so many missed them, Broward teachers’ union president Anna Fusco said.

The union prefers the weeklong Thanksgiving

option, she said.

“It’s a suggestion been out there for years,” she said.

Two years ago, schools in neighboring Palm Beach County instituted a weeklong Thanksgiving break, which has proven extremely popular.

Veronica Newmeyer, a parent at South Broward High and District Advisory Council member, said she would have preferred a choice that allowed first semester to end before winter break. All the voting options that’s many end the in January.

“Whatever they choose, when they tell me [my daughter] has to be in school, she will go to school,” Newmeyer said.

Online voting will continue until the school board takes a vote on the calendar, likely in December or January.

Go to survey hero.com/c/1e14b288 ?fbclid=IwAR24LgcMBijy VPkjgq1TcRTz9HmEj08yv eEaYDRSAf8_fWkSgsrt DECrkyc to cast a vote. first semester