MOUNT VERNON — It’s August and echoes of school bells are in the air. But, depending on where they live, local students do not return to school simultaneously. Danville and Northridge began Aug. 20. Mount Vernon and St. Vincent de Paul start today. Classes at Fredericktown and East Knox commence on Monday; Clear Fork starts Tuesday; and the Knox County Career Center will open its doors to high-schoolers on Wednesday. North Fork and Highland start after Labor Day, North Fork on Sept. 2 and Highland on Sept. 3.
Why the difference? Why don’t the local schools follow a common calendar? First, the Ohio Revised Code states the school calendar is a decision that rests with each local board of education. Everyone must schedule a minimum of 180 student days, including parent-teacher conferences. Some districts schedule more professional days for teachers and all try to build in at least five “calamity” days in an effort to limit the number of school days in June.
Second, the calendars reflect the character of each individual district. Community traditions play a role in developing a school calendar. For instance, Highland doesn’t start until after the Morrow County Fair, and Clear Fork takes the Bellville Fair into consideration. Some districts, such as Danville and East Knox, are not in session for the first day of deer gun season, and each district has a different philosophy regarding Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter breaks.
Mount Vernon superintendent Steve Short said this year’s calendar has two main differences from those in the past. Now, students have the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off, due to historical increased absences by elementary pupils that day. They also have the Monday after Thanksgiving off, due to previous-years’ increased absences that day of high school students.
John Marschhausen, superintendent of East Knox Local Schools, explained how Christmas plays a role in both the beginning and ending dates for school in his district. “When Christmas and New Year’s create a full two-week vacation, that impacts when school can start and end. Personally, I like being able to give two full weeks for Christmas. Students need a break. It also has health benefits by allowing for kids to get healthy and buildings to be properly cleaned.”
Fredericktown’s superintendent Dan Humphrey said his board likes for spring break to be at the end of the third nine weeks grading period, but also looks at when Easter falls in a particular year. Other districts link their spring breaks to college breaks, and others, like East Knox, prefer to have a set time for spring break so families have an easier time scheduling possible vacation trips.
Third, calendars are affected by other factors. Union contracts may play a role, and the increasing number of mandated testing dates have to be taken into account. Most districts allow some form of staff input into the calendars, and many teachers tend to prefer starting school in a partial week rather than a full week. That allows time for students to get reacquainted with their schoolmates and ease back into the educational routine. Short said those single days are “get out the kinks” days, where bus routes and schedules can be tweaked, students can find their lockers and classrooms and teachers and administrators can complete a myriad of “housekeeping” sorts of things.
Also, districts with buildings that are not air conditioned like a later start date because of the typical August hot weather conditions.
Dave Southward, superintendent of the Knox County Educational Service Center, said developing a countywide school calendar would be nice. “I know parents appreciate common calendars because it facilitates work schedules, transportation, and even program coordination between schools collaborating on different initiatives is facilitated by common calendars.”
Southward further said developing common calendars is very difficult for all of the reasons stated above. In spite of that, Southward said, “The superintendents have been pretty good about trying to stay as close as possible to a common calendar. Our districts’ calendars this year are very similar, particularly with Christmas and spring breaks.”
