Recently, students and staff at IHS have noticed a strange phenomenon in the schedule for this school year; namely, that there’s a massive gap of breaks. The 10 weeks between the end of February break and the beginning of spring break will go by without a single vacation day. Many, of both student and staff complexion, haved called these 68 days the “death march.” Why did we have so many breaks in the second quarter, while there are nearly none in the third? Whose system do we follow that requires this format? Who should I blame? Plus, on the first week of May, students will be forced to take their exams immediately after returning from spring break. The answers to most all of these questions were more interesting and understandable than I had anticipated.
In late February, I sat down with Superintendent Luvelle Brown, Director of Human Resources Bob VanKeuren, and Deputy Superintendent Matt Landahl. It was important to start at the beginning: how was the ICSD academic calendar made?
“The process includes a lot of back and forth; conversations over a series of months. I’m at the table with the other superintendents in our region who all feed into the BOCES system … and come to some agreement. Unlike other districts in our region, our calendar goes to the ITA—the teacher’s association—gives us feedback on the calendar, and other bargaining units gives us feedback on the calendar. We gather that feedback through a process. We also talk to parents, young people, and we incorporate that feedback into our iteration of the calendar.”
These discussions, featuring superintendents by Candor, Dryden, George Jr. Republic, Groton, Ithaca, Lansing, Newfield, South Seneca, Trumansburg, and TST BOCES, are held every year around this time. Actually, during the writing of this, the 2016–17 academic calendar has been released. But we’ll get to that later.
“It’s important to understand that a lot of the calendar is somewhat out of our control,” Dr. Landahl added. “It’s based on when the Regents schedule is happening in June and when Labor Day hits, as our teacher contract is essentially: ‘Our teachers don’t arrive until Labor Day.’ ” Labor Day was late this year, meaning more school, three days of February break instead of five, and fewer options for when to place spring break.
Administrators did not explain why there had to be a break right before AP exams.
ICSD mostly took the lead of TST BOCES’s calendar; however, we have two more school days than BOCES or districts like South Seneca (who use these days as breaks or snow day make-up days). However, the teacher contract requires ICSD’s teachers to have a certain amount of student contact days, and therefore these two possible vacation days must be school days rather than during a break. Additionally, due to the large population of students from IHS going to BOCES, the calendars have to align reasonably well. Therefore, state testing (in the middle of April for some and June for others), teacher contracts, and the needs of the BOCES-IHS student population is driving the late placement of spring break. All the districts in the area—the aforementioned nine—decided not to place spring break at the end of March because “that seems like it would be too early.”
“An alternative to the calendar we have now would look like a break being one week sooner,” Dr. Brown told me. Everyone I spoke to, however, hoped to have spring break earlier next year. So let’s check. I am holding the 2016–17 TST BOCES Regional Calendar, approved at the March 2 BoE meeting. The first day for students is September 7, and the spring break rests in the penultimate week of April. The news, take it as you will, is that there will be seven weeks between the end of February break and spring break in 2017. However, February break has been elongated by two days. Regents exams are three weeks before that. Adam Piasecki commented that this calendar has not been approved by our Board of Education, since we are still adjusting the regional calendar and Piasecki is still meeting central office administrators about the 2016–17 calendar. It still might change, but can only change so much due to the previously mentioned problems. It should also be noted that due to scheduling difficulties and placements of holidays, some “death marches” must occur somewhere in the schedule.
None of the administration seemed to appreciate my referring to the our current ten weeks as a “death march.” They laughed, but skirted around it.
In terms of talking to the administration about the 2016–17 calendar, you’re almost out of luck. By the time you read this the window has closed or will close in the next few days. The 2017–18 calendar will be determined around this time next year, though, so feel free to contact them during these next 12 months. They’ve moved away from previous years’ uses of a calendar committee to help plan the academic calendar, instead urging anyone to suggest feedback or recommendations through the “Let’s Talk” tool on the ICSD website, talks with the PTA council, or to have direct conversations with administration members. “We get a lot of feedback that we take into consideration,” Dr. Brown reaffirms.
Thanks to state testing, following the BOCES schedule (a decision Dr. Brown will not change anytime soon), teacher contracts, and the fall of holidays, our schedule can be messed up and will be going into the future. However, the administration’s focus is less on the days we’re in and out of school and instead on how we enjoy each day, whether it be studying for the SAT at home or cooking mousse in Food Science. Speak up and speak truthfully in these coming weeks, and hopefully the school will shift in your direction. State-testing times, however, probably won’t.