PUHI — The 2010-11 state Department of Education calendar can not be finalized until any and all furlough days are scheduled, school officials said. Without a final DOE calendar for the next school year, teachers and administrators can not properly
PUHI — The 2010-11 state Department of Education calendar can not be finalized until any and all furlough days are scheduled, school officials said.
Without a final DOE calendar for the next school year, teachers and administrators can not properly plan, said Margaret “Maggie” Cox, state Board of Education member representing Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau.
“I know it’s bad to not have the school calendar out yet,” said Cox, adding she is pushing for finalization as soon as possible.
But with the status of teacher furloughs still up in the air, and discussions on paying for some scheduled furlough days in the next school year, or lengthening spring break to two weeks with one week a furlough week, or other possibilities, it is impossible to finalize next year’s school calendar, Cox said at a BOE public meeting last week at the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School cafeteria.
There is also the possibility of giving up parent-teacher conferences, eliminating some days off between semesters, and other strategies to increase classroom instruction time, said Cox, a former teacher and principal.
Wil Okabe, Hawai‘i State Teachers Association president, predicts teacher planning difficulty without next year’s calendar.
“Hawai‘i public-school teachers normally have a calendar for the upcoming school year by now. Not having it affects their ability to plan,” Okabe said.
“Teachers collectively need to plan for professional-development days and the days on which they will schedule training for certification. They have to make arrangements for experts and specialists to come to their schools to deliver training and conduct workshops,” said Okabe.
“Teachers who also serve in other capacities, such as student events coordinators, need to plan events and activities, which requires reserving facilities and outside services. They will have a more difficult time next year because a calendar is not yet available,” said Okabe.
“The schools feel they still need staff-development days,” or days when teachers report to school but students are off, said Cox.
In related matters, the cost of a public-school lunch jumped 76 percent at the start of this year’s second semester two weeks ago, from $1.25 to $2.20, while the price of a public-school breakfast nearly tripled, from 35 cents to 95 cents, also effective with the start of the second semester.
A law passed by the state Legislature last year mandates that the price of a public-school student meal must be at least 50 percent of what it costs to prepare it.
Finally, Kaua‘i is to be immune from a statewide movement to increase the radius from public schools to homes necessary for students to qualify to ride a bus to and from school.
Currently, students living more than a mile from their campuses qualify for busing. Because of the rural nature of the island — for example, the lack of sidewalks — the move to further reduce the cost of running public schools by reducing the number of students who qualify to ride buses to and from school and thereby reducing the necessary number of buses and drivers will not be happening on Kaua‘i, Cox said.
