The long, hot summer that's ending is renewing a perennial debate over when the school year should start.
Perhaps the strongest Richmond County advocate for pushing the start of school back to after Labor Day, or at least closer to that date, is school board member Barbara Pulliam. In recent years, she has cast the lone vote against the school calendar on the grounds that classes begin during the hottest month of the year. She also has called for the district administration to study the issue and see whether it's feasible to start school around Labor Day beginning in 2012.
"I'm not going to ever vote on the calendar as it is because I just think the calendar has no logic to it," Pulliam said. "They get out of school before the end of May and go back the first of August. Everybody who ever lived in Georgia knows it's a hot state. If you're out for the summer, why would you pick the hottest month of the year to start school?"
She has at least one ally on the board: Jack Padgett.
"It should be later, and that's one I'm working on very strongly," said Padgett, the board's legislative liaison. "There's a group that's pushing it in Atlanta."
Students seem to favor the later start, even saying they prefer going to school in June instead of August.
"It really should start after Labor Day weekend because August is the hottest month of the whole, entire year," said Blake Jeffcoat, 12, an eighth-grader at Hephzibah Middle School. "It would save the school more money to not turn on the air."
Blake has lived in Richmond County for four years and spent the previous four years in Virginia, which requires districts to start after Labor Day unless they are granted a waiver.
Kailey Fulcher, 12, said she doesn't like classes being held during the dog days of August.
"If it was less hot when we came back to school, it helps a lot," said Kailey, a seventh-grader at Hephzibah Middle. "And you wouldn't have to have the air on all the time."
There have been several attempts in recent years to pass a law mandating a later start to the school year. All have failed, despite the efforts of groups such as Georgians Need Summer, an Acworth, Ga.-based organization advocating for a later start. State Sen. Bill Jackson, R-Appling, said he supports the idea.
"My basic feeling has always been that we ought to start all schools at the same time, after Labor Day," he said. "It was done that way years ago because it was so hot in July and August, and you didn't have air conditioning. It seems to me like it would be simpler and better to do something that's more efficient and start at the same time."
State Rep. Quincy Murphy, D-Augusta, said he also would vote for legislation mandating a later start date, so long as colleges and universities would accommodate teachers by scheduling continuing education courses during the altered summer break.
Not everyone supports a later start. Those who call for an earlier start -- or, at least, leaving that decision up to local school districts -- cite academic reasons.
Richmond County school board member Jimmy Atkins said he is "fine with when school starts."
"A certain amount of instructional time has to be covered before we get to the (Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests) and the Georgia High School Graduation Tests," he said, later adding, "Personally, I do like the fact that the kids are able to complete the first semester prior to going out for Christmas vacation."
WHY START EARLY?
- "High-stakes tests are typically given in the spring of the year. The more instructional days you can load in before the high-stakes test, the better chance you give teachers to prepare students." -- Kelly Henson, Georgia Professional Standards Commission
WHY START LATE?
- "(The) calendar has no logic to it. ... Why would you pick the hottest month of the year to start school?" -- Barbara Pulliam, Richmond County school board member
As it stands now, the first day of school is typically in early August in Georgia districts, but South Carolina districts are required by state law to start no earlier than the third Monday in August.
Local school systems fall in line with that pattern, as Richmond and Columbia county students returned to class Aug. 9. Aiken County's school year began the earliest it could, Aug. 16.
At least one Georgia school district, Savannah-Chatham County, starts later. That district's first day of school was Monday, and classes have generally started around Labor Day each year since 2006.
School should be year round, but the unions like a summer vacation. The insanity of the situation of which three months to take off will continue to be an issue no one will agree on.
johnston - once again you show your lack of knowledge of the teaching profession. Most teachers like the idea of year round schooling. Teach a quarter - then small break. Shorter summer break. Kids retain more and are stressed less due to the breaks between quarters. Also, there is no teacher's union in SC or GA. It is the governments that have dictated the school sessions.
I know it would be better for year round school, but it would cost a lot more. Think about what the transportation would be! that assumes of course that kids would be in classes 12 months a year. But on the flip side, if we do that, why do we need 12 grades. Maybe 10 would be the same.
Ty corgimom. Too many have no idea what the teaching year is. We dont get three months off, more like 7 weeks. And, yes, most teacher see the benefil of year round school for the students. Less stres for students and teachers. We spend far too much time at the beginning of the year "settling: in and catching up.
Later start for academic reasons? Really? The last stats I saw, Georgia public schools ranked 41 out of 50. Northeastern public schools academically outpace their southern counterparts. Yet, northeastern schools start after Labor Day. Furthermore they manage their school calendar with the post Labor Day start and really hard winters which cause students to miss several days each year. I haven't heard any logical reason to start school before Labor Day. Certainly trying to finish the first semester before the Christmas break isn't enough of a reason.
They start school early to get out before Memorial Day- so that the teenagers can work summer jobs.
It's done for the convenience of the coastal communities who need the teenage labor.
Georgia does not have a mandatory teacher's union, but it does have PAGE, which is a teacher's union.
I don't understand why they don't start the school year later. Isn't that way they do in the North? Don't they have better schools up there?
Neither PAGE nor GAE are unions in Georgia, where collective bargaining by state employees isn't legal. In any event, they don't have anything to do with the traditional school year with summer off; that's because of the state's agrarian roots in which students were needed on the farm. These days, as corgimom mentioned, its biggest defenders are the hospitality industry.
Since we are constantly building new schools, I am wondering why they haven't looked into geothermal heating and cooling. I'm would this Administration might give a huge tax break for it, especially if the Contractor promised to use illegal Democratic Voter labor.
doesn't the summer beach season last till Labor day? So if the kids are back in school by the first week of August then that means they are not available to work for the last month of beach season.. so what difference does it make really if you shift the summer vacation to after memorial day and then starting back after labor day. As someone mentioned, its been done that way in the northeast for years.. and their public schools routinely outpace the southeast. And the northeast also has a beach hospitality industry. I like the idea of having a quarter system with more frequent shorter breaks. BUt in any event there is no reason to start school back at what is the hottest point in this part of the country.
If you ever rode a bus to school on one of these hot summer days, you would know how it saps the energy right out of you. It is ridiculously expensive to cool down the schools in August. September is still plenty hot, but at least it is less costly running air conditioners starting later (September), rather than sooner (August). Considering how mobile a society we are, it would also be logistically helpful for families that need to move around for the breadwinner's jobs, to have the same or similar school starting dates, which most every where else would be early September around Labor Day. Considering one of our largest income generators, the military, has so many families moving in and out of here, you think that our educational system would take them into consideration more than they do. When are we going to start putting children and families first, like we should?
"If you ever rode a bus to school on one of these hot summer days, you would know how it saps the energy right out of you."
My parents' home still doesn't have air conditioning. We accepted hot weather as a fact of life. Still do.
I never lived in an air-conditioned home until I got married. When I came to Augusta, we were too poor to run the air-conditioner, we sat in that sweltering hot house every single day of summer. We survived.
As for the hospitality industry, the beach season quits about August 15th or so because college kids have to go back to school. Go to Myrtle Beach after August 15th and it's like a ghost town. It doesn't go till Labor Day any more.
When schools continue past Memorial Day, the college kids come in to the coastal communities and take all the jobs- and the high schoolers are left out. Hence the school systems follow the college schedules.
you people are not living in the 20th century yet !!.. more like 18th century !!
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