Published: December 02, 2008 10:53 pm      

Board OKs school calendars

EDMOND — Edmond school board members voted Monday night on the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school calendars.

With dissenting votes by Jamie Underwood and Charles Woodham, the 2009-10 calendar passed 3-2. The 2010-11 calendar passed 5-0.

In creating the 2009-10 calendar, the District Calendar Committee was asked to consider a Professional Development Day on Sept. 1.

“The District Professional Development Committee was able to schedule well-known speaker, Rick Wormeli, to speak to our faculty on that day,” said Director of Personnel Randy Decker.

“To facilitate this, the committee recommended moving one professional development day from Fall Break and one professional development day from the beginning of the year, creating a two-day break for

students on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1.”

Fall Break, which has been three days in past years (Thursday, Friday and Monday), will now be two days. Under this proposal, school would begin on a Tuesday and end on the Thursday before Memorial Day.

“I don’t think the calendar is student-friendly,” said school board member Jamie Underwood, referring to the first month of the school year.

“I just think it is hard for the students to get in the swing of things at the beginning of the year, and the first five weeks of school we only have one week where the students are in class each day.”

Underwood, whose parents were teachers, was concerned about the reaction of the teachers.

Associate Superintendent of Curriculum Services Linda DeSpain said the teachers are in favor of the professional day at the beginning of the school term.

Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Brenda Lyons said the professional day for the teachers will benefit the students as well.

“With the high stakes testing coming up it (the Professional Development day) will benefit those kids,” Lyons said.

“The speaker the Professional Development Committee wants to bring in, Rick Wormeli, is probably the foremost speaker in the nation,” Lyons said.

A National Board Certified teacher and 20-year veteran of teaching, Wormeli is the author of “Fair isn’t Always Equal,” and was selected as the recipient of the 1996 Disney American Teacher of English award.

As in previous calendars, three snow days are built into the calendar so school could be dismissed earlier than May 27 if those inclement weather days are not used.

The District Calendar Committee was comprised of representatives including parents, teachers, administrators and members of the University of Central Oklahoma.

“As we begin to build calendars each year, we start with a list of guidelines that set the parameters for the calendar,” Decker said. “These guidelines are derived from State Department of Education regulations as well as other criteria that have been set by previous calendar committees.”