Schools mulling later start in August

Palm Beach County School Board member pushing for change

There’s hope for Palm Beach County families who dread starting school in early August.

School board member Karen Brill wants to issue a mandate to the committee that plans the school calendar: Have school open in the third week of August, instead of the second, and figure out the school year’s other holidays and days off from that starting point.

Parents have complained for years about the schools’ early start, which they say conflicts with family vacations in August and ending dates for northern sleep-away camps. School board members have shown sympathy but have said they must have 90 days in each semester and are boxed in by an assortment of required days off, especially first semester, when there are holidays such as Labor Day and Election Day when schools must be closed.

School is scheduled to start Aug. 10 next school year and in 2021. These dates are the earliest allowed by state law. The school board likes the first semester to end before winter break so students are done with exams before their two-week vacation.

“There are a lot of valid reasons to start a little bit later,” Brill said. “Every year we say the calendar is set and we can’t change it. I want to charge the committee to meet knowing we’ll start the third week of August. We might have to give up something, but this would be the goal.”

The calendar committee con

sists mostly of school administrators and union representatives. Teachers union president Justin Katz said teachers are not likely to favor the proposal.

“We would have serious concerns,” he said. “All the tests students and teachers get evaluated on would still be on the same dates. So they would have fewer weeks of instruction and fewer weeks to prepare.”

Broward schools will start Aug. 19 next school year, Miami-Dade on Aug. 24. Although they start later, they also don’t have the same first semester holidays, such as Broward and Palm Beach County’s week off for Thanksgiving. Miami-Dade schedules a yearlong calendar instead of semesters and so does not need to hit the mid-year point in December.

Boca Raton parent Merideth Leeds said her family would be thrilled with a later start in August. This summer, she is deciding whether her children should leave their Pennsylvania sleep-away camp a week before its Aug. 16 ending date so they can make it back for the first day of school.

Palm Beach County’s start date is “crazy early in the grand scheme of things,” she said. “It’s impossible to make plans with your family if they live up north. We are deciding now whether to stay at camp or miss school for the week. My kids have been going there for nine years and this is their last summer.”

School Board Chairman Frank Barbieri Jr. said he supports Brill’s proposal. Although the calendar for next school year is set, he said the school board can make a recommendation to the superintendent about future calendars at an upcoming meeting.