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School calendar for 2007-08 has new twists

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Be prepared for some major changes in next year's school calendar. The 2007-08 Leander ISD calendar, approved at the Jan. 18 school board meeting, will be significantly different from previous calendars. Changes stem from the Texas Legislature's mandate that school districts can no longer start school any earlier than the fourth week in August.

The 2007-08 school year will begin Aug. 27, almost two weeks later than the 2006-07 start date of Aug. 16. The late start date will result in a correspondingly late end date, with school finishing on June 5. By comparison, the 2006-07 school year ends May 25.

The change will also cause the fall semester to extend past the winter break, to Jan. 11. For more than a decade, the fall semester has traditionally wrapped up before the break in LISD.

“The state legislature took away considerable local control of the school calendar,” said LISD spokesperson Bill Britcher. “I am not aware of any educational reason being discussed. Most of what I read had to do with tourism issues.”

Britcher found the loss of local control to be the biggest negative to the legislature's mandate. “We have school boards and processes in place to help design the calendar,” he said. Britcher said the calendar change will affect secondary students more than elementary students. “Because our school year will end June 5, kids and teachers who want to take summer courses may have a schedule conflict,” he said. “The calendar we had was closely aligned with most area universities and colleges. Teachers who are interested in continuing their education will now be more limited by their commitment to LISD.”

The late end to the fall semester may force teachers to retrace their steps rather than teaching new material in order to help students prepare for final exams, said Britcher. “In the past, high school teachers have felt they had to spend more time reviewing if the finals were held after the holiday break,” he said.

The new calendar could have some benefits for LISD. First of all, opening later in August could result in a cheaper air conditioning bill. “That assumes that those days in August will be warmer than the extra days in June,” said Britcher.

Another plus for local students will be a longer Thanksgiving break. LISD has traditionally taken off Wednesday through Friday for Thanksgiving. Because of data that shows attendance has been low during on the preceding days, educators decided to give students the whole week off.

E-mail charles@hillcountrynews.com

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