District schedule to be changed over two years

Alice Kors and Chase WohrleStaff WritersIn a vote at its Feb. 3 meeting, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) school board finalized the decision to to shift the school calendar forward by two weeks. The change will be implemented over a two-year period, beginning next year.The next school year will begin on Aug. 30, 2011 and end on June 15, 2012. Students will return after winter break on Jan. 4, leaving only eight days of review before fall semester finals. The following year school will begin on Aug. 22, 2012 and end on June 11, 2013. In December 2012, first semester finals will take place on the last week before winter break, leaving no conflicts between the break and the study period.The SMMUSD school board believes that this two-year plan will make the transition between the current and new schedules smoother for students and faculty.“Parents and some board members felt it would be best to transition over two years in order to reach the goals of the new calendar,” SMMUSD superintendent Tim Cuneo said. “Next year’s calendar was being adopted in January and some families had already made vacation or travel plans, so a transition year seemed to help alleviate potential school calendar and family vacation plan conflicts.”However, not all support the gradual implementation of the schedule because of the awkward timing of winter break in December 2011 and the fall semester finals.“As a junior next year, I’ll be experiencing APs for the first time,” sophomore Alex DeWitt said. “I have so much studying to do in such a small amount of time, I’d rather the transition happen all at once.”Sophomore Tanner Skylar agrees with DeWitt.“I understand that this is the only way to push the calendar back,” Skylar said. “But as a student it’s frustrating because I need more time to study for the finals.”This two-year plan, while controversial, will eventually lead to a complete schedule change, for which many in the Samo community are excited. AP U.S. History teacher William Gow believes that the current calendar puts AP students at a disadvantage, and the new calendar will allow them more time to study for their May exams.“Schools on the East Coast start in August, but because all AP exams [are] taken at the same time, they have three to four more weeks to cover the same amount of content,” Gow said. “Starting a year earlier will make it much better for AP students. It will give them more time to master the same content.”According to Cuneo, AP exams played a large role in the decision to update the calendar.“[Teachers and principals] identified several areas of concern that included instructional time prior to testing — in particular, prior to AP exams — and having first semester exams immediately after the winter break,” Cuneo said. “Attendance at colleges, universities and summer work were [also] in conflict with school going late into June. Draft calendars and the pros and cons of each were discussed last year and during the first semester of this year.”Final exams were also a point of discussion when deciding on the new schedule, according to college counselor Frank Gatell. Currently, students have two weeks after returning from winter break to prepare and review for their exams. When the final calendar is in place in the 2012-2013 school year, students will begin winter break immediately after completing their finals. According to Gatell, this will put Samo students in sync with many other districts in the country.“Eventually the first semester will end before the holiday. And that’s what real life is, that’s what college is. We need to prepare you for that,” Gatell said. “This is what we’ve been doing for last 100 years: giving two weeks after the holidays for students to prepare for the finals. It is really not realistic.”Additionally, the new calendar will allow students to have more opportunities to participate in extracurricular summer activities, such as “get-ahead” courses at Santa Monica College (SMC). Until recently, SMC offered special “late-start” summer classes to accommodate SMMUSD students,  but this program was recently canceled due to budget cuts.Gatell says it is a shame that the program had to be shut down, but said “in future years, people will be able to take courses at SMC and start on the regular time, just like everyone else, and not be worried about missing school or graduation.”The changes will also benefit seniors who need to send their first semester grades to colleges. Right now, college counselors must wait for the district to finalize the first semester grades before they can send students’ mid-year reports to the colleges to which they have applied.“Right now we’re under the gun because the district just made grades final,” Gatell said.  “At the College Center here, we have literally 72 hours to turn around 1700 transcripts because we need to get them out the door by the 11th. If we start earlier, then we’re not under that gun.”Gatell is optimistic about the new schedule, and believes that Samo will benefit from the changes.“People really get set in their ways and when you try to bring on change it takes a while to get people on board and then realize the benefits,” Gatell said. “Someone used the counter-argument, ‘Well, if we start school in August, it’s still summer and it’s too hot.’ And last I checked, we’re four blocks from the beach. We’re not inland.”akors@thesamohi.comcwohrle@thesamohi.com