School starting earlier than ever

District officials, parents disagree on value of more breaks.

If you’re one of those parents who hold Christmas and backto-school seasons in identical regard — inexorable, expensive events that seem to come earlier every year — we have some good news for you: You’re right.

The first day of school in many metro Atlanta school districts has crept earlier over the past 10 years, in some districts now daring to edge into July.

More than 11,700 people in Cobb County, where classes begin July 31, don’t like it a bit. They have signed an online petition disapproving of that start date and the trend of the day coming earlier and earlier.

It’s the earliest starting day for

any metro Atlanta district and the earliest in years in Cobb, which has hada series of particularly nasty fights over school calendar decisions in the past decade. It’s just one day earlier than Cobb’s start date last year, but 10 years ago Cobb’s fifirst day was Aug. 13.

“Everyone keeps saying it’s one day earlier, but it’s just been a transition the last few years. And where does it end?” said Beth Guerra, a Marietta attorney with a rising 8th-grader at Simpson Middle School.

Blame or thank the trend toward calendars that give priority to more or longer breaks during the school year.

Some of those who signed the Cobb petition said school breaks shouldn’t be as long — or exist at all.

“It’s a hardship on parents,” Guerra said. “If I don’t take the week off, what do I do with my 13-year-old?” She refers to the breaks as “forced vacation.”

Stephanie Coston, whohas a childgoing into 7th grade at Lost Mountain Middle School, said the breaks aren’t as useful as a long summer. “It’s hard to mimic that rhythm of the family aweek at a time in February,” she said.

While some parents and educators saya longer school year helps children, particularly poor children, from losing groundover the summer, the research isn’t decisive.

“Some of this could be going under cover of academic performance, but it’s really adult preference and convenience,” said Vanderbilt University professor of education Barb Stengel.

That’s not an awful thing, she said. But changes in school schedules can create winners and losers, leaving some families scrambling to find child care during breaks, for example, while giving others more opportunities for family vacations or educational camps.

Coston, who said she’s had achild in the Cobb school systemfor thepast 21 years, said her children used their summers to learn instruments, enjoy family time and let their brains relaxafter the rigorsof study. “The sustained stressfree enjoyment of summer and the things that they can learn as young people over their summer breaks are just as important during the school days they have,” she said.

Parent Nan Cooper likes Fulton County’s calendar. School always starts on a Monday in early August, and unlike some neighboring districts, there aren’t many weeklong vacations other than the usual ones, like spring break. Cobb takes an extra week break in September and another in February.

Cooper said the multiple mini-vacations throughout the school year might be nice for families that can afford trips to destinations like Disneyland during off-peak times. But, she said, kids typically take a day or two to get back on track after each break. And schools with extra vacations can prove a challenge for family schedules, she said, with kid camps unavailable and amusement parks closed.

And the more you move the date up, some say, the closer you get to the dead heat of summer. Guerra and Coston both said they’ve had panting children amble through the front door after a sweaty bus ride.

“It’s hot in August and these air buses don’t have air conditioning,” Coston said. Cobb County schools spokes woman Donna Lowry confirmed that the only Cobb buses with air conditioning are 225 of its 300 special-education buses. The district’s 925 standard buses can be saunas on wheels some days.

Mayssam Daniel, mother of a rising second-grader at Kennesaw Elementary School, said, “The recess will be like hell to them.” She said, “My son’s health is more important than anything else.”

Daniel said the early start date also makes it hard to get her son to bed at 9 p.m. when the sunis still out. And it meant family plans to visit Lebanon, where she’s from, didn’t make it offthe ground.

Georgia schools generally must be in session at least 180 days or the equivalent, which can mean fewer but longer school days, Georgia Department of Education spokesperson Meghan Frick said. Schools deviating from that requirement lose some state funding.

Some states restrict when schools canopen, sometimes prompted by lobbying from businesses looking to capitalize on summer vacations. Virginia schools can’t start before LaborDay. Texas bars most schools from opening before the fourth Monday in August. In Tennessee, school can’ t start before Aug .1. Georgia has no such requirement.

Henry County moved its mid-August start date earlier about 15 years ago and added morebreaks in an attempt to prevent “burnout” among students and teachers, district spokesperson J.D. Hardin said.

Henry County students also start July 31 this year and have weeklong breaks in October and April and a two-week December break.

Though Cobb’s July 31 start is drawing ire, that will be Day 4 into classes for some students. The sought-after Charles R. Drew Charter School in Atlanta brings its students back July 26. Teachers are already busy, as they reported to school July 19.

Forsometeachers, thenew school year started weeks ago. New teachers at KIPP charter schools in Atlanta have been in the classroom since July 10, with new students starting July 26. Teachers in most metro Atlanta districts start aweek before students return.

A note on the Cobb petition shows how strongly some parents feel: “Some of us have considered holding our children back from the fifirst few days of school as an act of resistance to what we see as unnecessary, if not hostile, encroachment into our families’ needs.”

There were no numbers to back up howmany, if any, would be taking that step.