Why some Peoria parents and students oppose change to school calendar and shorter summers
PEORIA – Though the Peoria Public Schools board seemed to be on a crash course to approve the modified calendar for the entire district, the controversial measure was tabled Monday night after three hours of discussion.
School board member Mike Murphy made a motion to table the issue until after the board came up with a plan for returning the district to a two-tiered bell schedule. His motion was approved by all except Martha Ross.
The decision was made after heated discussion on several topics, including a dispute between the teachers union and the ELITE Youth Outreach program. But discussion mainly focused on the proposed change from a traditional school calendar to a modified calendar, a measure that would shorten the summer break from 54 days to 42 days and create two-week breaks in the fall and the spring.
PPS Superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat said the modified school calendar would provide much-needed respite for teachers and students, a chance to rest and rejuvenate, and ultimately lead to better student behavior. Opponents of the measure, including board member Anni Reinking, asked for data to support those claims.
“This petition is based on assumptions, not data,” Reinking said.
A total of 11 people spoke against the measure, including several students. There is also an online petition signed by 638 people against the schedule change.
Prior to the meeting, about 21 people braved a brisk wind and temperatures in the 20s to protest Monday afternoon outside the PPS administration building.
“I think we are lacking the information that we need to make this decision at this time,” said Lynn Fingerhut, the parent of two PPS students. “There hasn’t been enough input from the community, and we don’t really truly know the benefits of it.”
Michelle Henderson, who is a parent and a teacher for PPS, agreed that there are a lot of unanswered questions about the benefit of the balanced calendar. While a shorter summer break is being proposed as a way to stop learning loss that can happen during a long break, it could exacerbate the problem. The balanced calendar includes more multi-week breaks.
“More breaks mean more learning loss,” she said. “Instead of just having a summer slide, you have a fall and spring slide as well.”
For Alicia Granderson, the parent of two children in PPS, a shortened summer break would be downright disruptive.
“My children visit my parents in Nevada every summer, so that would greatly affect them as well as their other summer activities," she said. "We put them in a lot of sports, things of that nature. So that would greatly impact our family time that we have during the summer."
The modified calendar is actually a compromise from what Desmoulin-Kherat first proposed — the balanced calendar, which would have reduced summer break to just 30 days.
When it became clear last year that a lot of people opposed that plan, the district put the modified calendar on the table. Harrison Community Learning Center has been piloting the modified calendar this year, and gave it the thumbs-up at the December board meeting.
But in the end, school board members decided that getting back to the two-tiered bus schedule was a more pressing matter that needed to be addressed before committing to the calendar change.
The district has been on a three-tiered bell schedule, which shortens the school day, since last year, when a bus driver shortage forced the district to find a way to get everyone to school with fewer drivers.
Leslie Renken can be reached at 309-370-5087 or lrenken@pjstar.com. Follow her on Facebook.com/leslie.renken.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria schools calendar: Board tables change after heated discussion
