Brea Canyon High’s Calendar Revamped

Brea Olinda Unified School District trustees Monday night unanimously approved a new school calendar for Brea Canyon High School, which will give students one-week vacations between six-week blocks of school.

The one-year pilot program will begin in August, said Principal Bob Phelps.

Phelps said the breaks will reduce the likelihood of student burnout and keep students at the continuation high school interested in school. The school will maintain a traditional, but slightly shorter, summer vacation and have the same number of school days as other schools.

Although trustees commended Phelps and his staff for bringing forward the plan, several trustees expressed concern that the alternative calendar might hurt students by not preparing them for long-term jobs or luring students away from the district’s traditional high school.

“I don’t want to see a lot of kids leaving Brea Olinda [High School] and going to Brea Canyon just because they know they’ll get six weeks on and one week off,” Trustee Denise Keller said.

Early concerns also had focused on whether families with children at more than one school would have trouble planning vacations if their school calendars were different.

Before trustees agree to keep the alternative calendar permanently, they said they want to compare student attendance figures and graduation rates after one year with the new schedule with results from previous years.