Summer Is Ending Sooner for Students

For John Sharpe, it seemed downright unjust to have to take his two children to school last Tuesday, before summer had wound to its unofficial end.

“From an emotional standpoint, summer’s not over until Labor Day,” harrumphed the Westchester father. “I dislike having my summer abruptly stopped because my children have to start school days before everybody else in the neighborhood.”

Throughout California and the nation, public and private schools are messing with the generations-old tradition that saw most students trudge off to school a day or two after Labor Day.

Year-round schools that run on multiple schedules are only part of the equation. Increasingly, even schools with “traditional” calendars are moving up or pushing back the opening date--to as early as Aug. 13 or as late as Sept. 11 in California.

By one estimate, the percentage of public schools nationwide opening before Sept. 1 rose to 76% last year, from 51% in the late 1980s.

The changes are disturbing a rhythm to which families--not to mention retailers, camps and theme parks--have long grown accustomed. For many families, early or late openings create havoc with vacations, day care and beach time.

“It’s hard to schedule some vacation time, especially when you throw into the mix the fact that they both do sports,” said Shelley Allen, a San Marino resident whose sons attend separate Pasadena private schools with starting dates two weeks apart.

For merchants, the wide variance in opening dates has meant earlier back-to-school promotions and an end to the one- or two-week sales peak that used to mark this time of year. For example, Old Navy, a chain owned by Gap Inc., moved up its fall marketing program by a week this year to July 26, its earliest ever.

The tourism industry, meanwhile, clings to the notion that Labor Day provides the ideal break between summer and school.

Virginia, for example, passed legislation in 1986, at the urging of hotel and theme park operators, requiring school districts to seek a waiver if they wanted to open before Labor Day. The result is known as the Kings Dominion Law after a theme park near Richmond. (More than half of the state’s 132 school systems have received waivers granting exceptions, many for snow days.)

Earlier this year in tourism-dependent Virginia Beach, Va., hotel operators shouted down the local school superintendent’s plan to lengthen the school year by adding a few days before Labor Day. Tourism officials feared the loss of teenage workers and millions of dollars in end-of-summer revenue. Vociferous opposition also came from many parents and teachers.

Educators offer a grab bag of reasons for the staggered starting dates, from the need to sprinkle teacher training days throughout the year to the desire to coordinate with colleges so students can take classes. In the Sacramento suburb of Rio Linda, parents, teachers and students have embraced an August start so they can enjoy a refreshing two-week break . . . in October.

One factor in the August opening at St. Anastasia’s, the Catholic school in Los Angeles’ Westchester neighborhood where Sharpe sends his children, is that the school is giving several Fridays or Mondays off to teachers throughout the year. Most parents support the policy, but they’re divided on the pain or benefits of the early start.

“I knew way ahead of time that was the schedule, so I just planned for it,” said Teressa Syta, who has a third-grader at St. Anastasia’s and a kindergartner who will start at a public school the day after Labor Day. “There are reasons. I don’t think these schedules are willy-nilly.”

Still, the topic has generated debate among parents, Sharpe said. A photographer’s agent who works at home, he cherishes the final days of summer. It pains him that fourth-grader Connor, 9, and first-grader Madeline, 6, had to hit the books in late August.

Perhaps Sharpe’s biggest complaint is that come June the early start means his children get out of school days before their playmates.

“All of a sudden we have children at home. They have no one to play with, and camp hasn’t started yet,” he said. He and his wife, Irene, who works with him, “just absorb them into our day,” Sharpe said, “but it makes us a lot less efficient.”

Public school districts negotiate their calendars with teachers unions, taking into account when holidays fall, the number of required instructional days--a minimum of 180--and the number of teacher training days, usually three or four. Many high schools set their graduation for a Friday in June and count back from that date.

In the community of Winters, west of Sacramento, stark changes in the farm economy have enabled officials to shift the school calendar. Years ago, students got out of school in mid-May to help with the apricot harvest. Next came peaches, then plums, keeping them busy through August. Those orchards are largely gone now, supplanted by walnut trees, which are harvested mechanically.

Winters’ 2,000 students headed back to their five schools Aug. 23. In return for the early start, they can look forward to slightly longer Thanksgiving, winter and spring breaks.

Next year, said district Supt. Dale J. Mitchell, will have a new wrinkle: The first semester will end before winter break, pushing the starting date to Aug. 12.

Some parents grouse that the district is attempting to sidle into a year-round calendar. Indeed, Mitchell said, “There’s more and more discussion . . . about year-round education.”

Will parents balk? “We did have some excitable folks when this went to the school board for approval in June,” Mitchell said.

“Certainly, one of the things we’ll need to pay attention to is attendance rates. It’s difficult to educate students when they’re not there.”