School Board Votes to Approve Pre-Labor Day Start for Students

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schoolbusThe Prince William County School Board voted unanimously Dec. 17 to approve the 2015-16 calendar option that includes a pre-Labor Day start date for schools and a two-week winter vacation.

According to this new calendar, school would begin Monday, Aug. 31,2015, and end Friday, June 17.

Staff presented a standard calendar option at the Board’s Dec. 3 meeting. However, the start and end date for schools were particularly late with school starting Sept. 8 and ending on June 23.

Shortly after the previous meeting, staff discovered that the school division could qualify for a waiver allowing them to start school earlier.

Dr. Jennifer Cassata, Director of the Office of Accountability, explained that the Virginia Department of Education confirmed Prince William County Schools qualified for a waiver by meeting their requirement of having missed an average of nine days per year during its five roughest years of the past 10 years.

School Board members were happy to have the new option and emphasized that the pre-Labor Day start date has the advantages of adding three more instructional days before SOLs, A.P. and other assessments, and allowed for a longer winter break. Brentsville District School Board member Gil Trenum added that the new calendar prevents the school year extending into July if the school division experiences another difficult winter.

While School Board members spoke in favor of the pre-Labor Day calendar option, some were reluctant to vote on the issue that evening, noting that residents did not have enough time to vet the new proposal. Dr. Michael Otaigbe (Coles), Lisa Bell (Neabsco) and Lillie Jessie (Occoquan) supported delaying the vote, but the other five board members did not.

School Board members then discussed how to deal with families who already booked vacation plans for the first week of September.

Dr. Tim Healey, Associate Superintendent of Student Learning, said parents who had previous made Labor Day week plans could able pick up beginning of the year packets early by contacting their school.

The Board clarified that schools would not begin before Labor Day every year; they would still need to approve a calendar each year. However, Cassata believes they will qualify for the waiver again in 2016-17.

According to School Board Chairman At-large Milt Johns, approximately 70 percent of the emails and calls he received on the subject were overwhelmingly in favor of the earlier start date. Parents, teachers and students prefer the early start time because it provides additional instruction time before standardized tests.

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