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Education commissioner says no to early start
The Department of Education reportedly denied a request by Pipestone Area Schools and other school districts in southwestern Minnesota to start the 2009 - 2010 school year on Monday, August 24.
In response to the decision, the School Board Monday approved a calendar for the 2009 – 2010 school year that begins on September 8.
PAS Superintendent Jim Lentz said that Education Commissioner Alice Seagren sent no official letter regarding the matter at this time. Instead, she communicated by phone with Cliff Carmody, Executive Director of the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative and Redwood Valley Superintendent Rick Ellingworth.
“It’s as official as we’re going to get right now,” Lentz said.
A statement e-mailed to the County Star by Randy Wanke, communications director for the Minnesota Department of Education, explains that the applications were not approved, "because they did not meet all the requirements of the Flexible Learning Year Law.
"MDE will be providing the districts more detailed feedback on the review of their proposals and responding to any questions they may have in case they wish to resubmit their proposal for the 2010-11 school year," Wanke said in his statement.
Lentz said that while he hoped the measure would pass, he had his doubts all along. Regardless of the reasons, he said, the district has no choice but to move on.
“Basically, you get shut down and that’s the way it is,” Lentz said. “Sometimes that happens.”
The approved school year ends June 4 and does share common in-service days with other area schools, which was one reason for the proposed early start and modified school calendar. Lentz said area schools will continue to work together toward similar schedules. This year, for example, PAS will share common in-service days with Jackson and Worthington on January 18 and March 15.
Other goals of the proposed modified school calendar were to allow the schools involved to take advantage of high impact learning days in late August rather than late May or early June, allow students to have more class time before national testing and have similar schedules to area colleges.
The proposal was met with some concern from teachers who said that their opinions had not been sought in the matter and that the three informational meetings held Monday, May 4 at 3:45 p.m., Wednesday, May 6 at 5 p.m. and Monday, May 11 at 8 a.m. were not at times convenient for the public to attend.
Members of the public also expressed concern about the late August heat coupled with a lack of air conditioning in the elementary schools, whether the plan would be cost effective and whether it was worth aligning the school year with area colleges for the benefit of a handful of high school students who participate in Post Secondary Education.
For now the measure is dead. Any future consideration of a modified schedule with an earlier start date, Lentz said, would be up to the School Board.
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