The Whiteboard Jungle: GUSD would be wise to follow BUSD’s example on calendar issue

January will be a busy time for Glendale Unified School Board members as they tackle two of the most significant issues left over from 2015: the search for a new superintendent and a new starting date for school.

While the public has a minor say in choosing a superintendent, parents can have a major impact voicing their views on when schools should open their doors by attending one of the upcoming meetings on the issue.

School officials had initially set the times, dates and locations for the meetings, with the first meeting slated for Jan. 11. However, they have since postponed them, wanting classes to resume and families to be back from vacation before inviting them to the meetings.

As reported before in this space, opening schools in early August makes no sense. The desire to finish the fall semester before winter break pertains only to seventh through 12th graders, who have final exams.

And the idea that high school students need more time to prepare for Advanced Placement tests before the May testing period is just that — an idea. There is no proof that students have performed better on AP tests ever since school was moved up several weeks to early August.

In fact, AP test results have suffered in recent years ever since pre-requisites to taking AP classes were eliminated. Plus, this affects only a small portion of high school students. The majority of the K-12 student population does not need to follow a college calendar.

Thumbs up to parent Sarah Rush for spearheading an online petition to start school later that garnered 2,000 plus signatures. It definitely got the attention of GUSD officials more than this writer’s musings.

Thumbs down to GUSD for shelving this discussion even though parents expressed themselves back in August, allowing plenty of time to alter next year’s calendar. One school board member rationalized that they could not change the calendar because people already have made plans based on the Aug. 8 start date. Really?

Number one, how many parents cement August 2016 vacation plans in August 2015. And, number two, if they did, so what? School would not be starting earlier, it would be starting later.

Unfortunately, GUSD officials were not interested in renegotiating the already approved 2016-17 calendar. Understandably Glendale’s school board members had their hands full with myriad issues this year including labor negotiations with employee groups, a proposed charter school (recently denied), future realignment of the district, as well as the continuing Sagebrush saga.

On the plus side, GUSD finally followed what Burbank Unified has done for years by posting an online survey for parents between Jan. 8 and 22 on this issue. And the district has formed a 27-member Superintendent’s Committee on Calendar Development that will meet five times (do we really need 27 people to devise calendar options?).

I find Burbank’s school calendar the most efficient. School opens Aug. 15 and ends on May 25. The 11-week summer allows more time not just for travel but for kids to enroll in enrichment classes or to get jobs. Conversely, Glendale schools start Aug. 8 and end June 1 with a nine-week summer.

I’m not sure why GUSD’s 27-member committee needs five meetings to devise a new calendar when their municipal neighbor already has one that they can adopt. Not having the Friday off before Labor Day, limiting the Thanksgiving holidays to three, and keeping winter break to two full weeks is how they do it, fitting the state-mandated 180 days of school within 284 calendar days instead of 298.

There, you can cancel four of the meetings right there.

Both cities share similar demographics and the same delicious bakery, Porto’s. So, to start the new year right, hold a joint meeting of BUSD and GUSD and come to a consensus on the same school calendar. Potato balls, anyone?

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BRIAN CROSBY is a teacher in the Glendale Unified School District and the author of “Smart Kids, Bad Schools” and “The $100,000 Teacher.” He can be reached at briancrosby.org.