Its seems like the McDowell group is getting a lot of CBJ money lately. Phone surveys and now teacher feedback. I wonder how much this study is costing.

Eliminating spring break is the dumbest idea yet. Go ahead, my kids will be gone a week in March anyway. Adding a week to the summer isn't the bonus that they act like it is.

You'll love this then: the proposed calendar also gives the kids a full week at Thanksgiving.

Yeah, well, maybe if society had its priorities straight and actually treated teachers with the respect they deserve they wouldn't need extra time to catch up on their work.

Seems to me a lot of people are so clueless as to think teachers just talk in front of a classroom for a few hours and are then done for the day.

A week at Thanksgiving and then three weeks later, two weeks off for Winter Break?! Throw in the usually near monthly federal holidays and when are these kids supposed to learn so they can pass these mandatory tests?

Of the 284 days in a school year, kids only attend for 169 of them. I fall to see how forgoing Spring Break to shorten the school year helps these kids.

Early release Monday's are a joke. High School starting at 9:15 is a joke. The school district, generally, is a JOKE.

I think this is a good idea.
This is free education, and for some kids the only education they will ever get.
Look at China, this is who are kids will be competing with.

People - The kids will still be going to school the same number of days as always regardless of how the days are configured, though it might feel like more days to those of you who see kids wandering the streets as they will have less partial weeks to roam.

Then they need to give up the idea that teaching is a part-time profession. Look, I'm an advocate of teachers. I hold a K-8 certificate. But the plain fact is that kids don't need to work the farm in summer any more. Yes, kids need some breaks. Yes, teachers need some time for professional development. Teacher collaboration (Monday release days) when done right is very effective. But if teachers want the respect they clamor for - they need to give up spring break - and two months of summer as well. Kids are in school more - collaboration and professional development time can be spread out more throughout the year, teachers could have regular paid 'office hours' for interacting with parents, creating lessons, grading papers. Then they wouldn't need to go in on Saturday to get those things done.

If teachers want to be treated as professionals, they need to treat their job as a profession - regular teacher evaluations, willingness to change their teaching style when research shows there is something better, using data to determine how kids are doing instead of anecdotal "I just know how kids are doing in my class" and a full time, year-round work schedule. Teachers at the top of the Juneau pay scale make $70-75 thousand per year - that's plenty of pay for a year round job.

I like option B. Not all families can afford to go to Mexico or Hawaii for a week in March. It can mean extra childcare costs for those who have to work while their kids don't have school for a week or kids that sit home unsupervised in front of their tv or gaming systems all day.

And no, not all school systems do Spring Breaks. Washington State has schools that do a mini-break 2x between January and May, but they also continue school thru late June.

A week off during Thanksgiving makes sense...conferences usually give them 3-5 days off anyway.

I would prefer a later start date, starting Sept. 1st and then ending May 31st, seems like good guide dates to me.

I personally think kids are out too much and late days makes no sense. We should be getting these kids ready for the real working world and sleeping in and getting weeks off at a time is not it. Speaking about HS here mostly, but even in Elem & Middle school field trips take up a fair amount of the year so more official days of school wouldn't hurt anyone.

I have gotten lucky and had more amazing teachers than not through the years. Rebecca Farrell is a diamond in my opinion.
So I really don't have any bashing to do in regards to the teachers. But the system and schedule are ridiculous.

We need to get tougher on these HS kids and stop coddling their "want" not need to sleep in late and be lazy. They need to go to school early, get after school jobs if they are not in sports and go to school more not less.

They send out these e-mails and ask for parental opinion (and yes i sent in mine) but does JSD/School Boards even really listen? Most of what I see in posts, blogs and hear in the community is parents don't like the new HS schedule, we don't like early release and we want our kids in school more not less. But none of that happens, is that because they ignore us? or because everyone complaining in public isn't complaining where it counts, to the School Board?

As far as spring break or other holidays... I am the mom if I want my kids home for family time they will be. No school calendar will change that.

So high school has to start at 9:15 so they can rest properly. But then they will run 90 days straight (pres day to 5/17) without a holiday.

These people need their heads examined. This calendar thing isn't that hard. Take a calendar, mark off the traditional holidays, figure out the start date count 170 school days forward and there's your end date. Ok, plug in the conferences and whatever else but in the end it's ain't all that tough.

Get rid of the freaking committee and give it to some admin clerk who will figure it out just fine.

Canned teaching changes with the times to meet the needs of children as our world is forever changing. Using the same stuff every year doesn't. I know plenty of teachers who have pulled lesson plans from a file labeled "January" that they have been using for years so they can look prepared for this month. Obviously it's not working. "Specialists" and "Tenured" and "Specials" are a joke.

Juneau_baby has it right. It's all one big joke.

WHY do some of your think that this is just the working of the administration or some "freaking comittee" that was concocted at the last minute for their amusement? This committee (of which I am not part of) has been meeting for weeks. It's not something simple that you just grab a calendar and mark days off of to come up with 180 days of education. There is mandated testing and other days that must be planned around. Photonut, if it "ain't all that tough," why don't you join the calendar committee next fall? I think you will be amazed at how much harder it is and could lead you to respect our teachers and school district personnel a lot more than you do.
The delayed start time, if I recall, was a trial. I'm not for it and don't think it's really working. I hope that will eventually go away.

So because Alaskagrown thinks it's too expensive to leave Juneau for a week, we should all just stay home and go to school. My family does frequently leave Juneau for that week and maybe an extra day or two.

If this is all about testing, move the test dates by a week.

This is about more than just the districts schedule, when they start making huge changes like this, they are messing with peoples lives.

Interested to see how much this costs people with kids in daycare in the summer to add that week.

How about the loss of revenue at Eaglecrest if they don't get that extra week. Gold Medal brings money to Juneau.

There's more to this than just deciding to make the summer longer. It has an impact on the community.

You're not telling us you participated in an evil game of colonization, are you p?

Now I'm really depressed.