Naperville Dist. 203 students to get Columbus Day off
Naperville Unit District 203 high school students will continue to take exams before winter break and classes won't be in session on Columbus Day, according to the latest draft of next year's school calendar.
The district largely based its proposed 2008-09 class calendar on ones it has used for the past two years.
In a recent survey, roughly 67.1 percent of parents and 48.1 percent of staff gave the thumbs up to 2007-08 calendar.
"The tricky part in creating a calendar is everyone has in mind what the calendar should look like," said Melanie Raczkiewicz, associate superintendent for operations.
She said state guidelines, mandatory testing dates, county institute days, holidays and teacher contract agreements all had to be taken into consideration when putting the schedule together. The district also tried to have as many full weeks of classes as possible.
If the latest draft is approved by the school board, classes would begin Aug. 19 to accommodate the goal of finishing the semester Dec. 19.
Parent-teacher conferences were scheduled for Oct. 9-10, but Raczkiewicz said those dates will be switched because they fall on Yom Kippur.
For two years, students have attended class on Columbus Day, but next year it would return to holiday status. Raczkiewicz said the change is based on feedback from students and staff that they need a breather between classes starting and Thanksgiving break.
High school students would take exams in December and finish first semester Dec. 19. Winter break would then run from Dec. 22 to Jan. 2.
This school year was the second time the district ended first semester before winter break so there wouldn't be a gap in lessons and students wouldn't have work to do over break.
"It seems like we're making a lot of compromises to stuff everything in before the December holidays," school board member Mike Jaensch said.
But a 2005 student survey found that 70 percent of students prefer to have finals before break.
This arrangement makes first semester shorter than second semester, but Jodi Wirt, associate superintendent for instruction, said teachers are building enrichment activities into the second semester curriculum to fill the gap.
In the draft calendar, second semester would begin Jan. 5, 2009, with spring break from March 30 to April 3. High school seniors would graduate May 20, while classes would end May 29 for everyone else unless emergency days are needed.
The draft calendar is available for viewing at www.naperville203.org. The calendar committee will meet Thursday to discuss any changes that need to be made. The school board will likely vote on the calendar at its Jan. 22 meeting.