2007-2008 Academic Calendar

 

The Naselle Grays River Valley School Board has approved the calendar for the 2007-2008 school year.  It is quite a bit different than the current calendar.  Of particular note are the "gray" days built in as vacations.  There are four days on the 07-08 calendar that may be cancelled to make up lost days due to weather or illness related closures.  If we had that kind of calendar this year, we would be getting out on time, June 18th, rather than June 21st.
 
To gather information regarding the development of a calendar, the administration sent surveys to students, parents and staff.  We gathered 231 surveys from students, 41 from staff, and 36 from parents.  We particularly wanted input regarding the beginning and ending of schools, how long Christmas break should be, whether to have a winter break, and whether there was support for "gray" days to be built in to the calendar.  We found fairly consistent agreement across the three groups.  For the most part, people agreed they wanted school to begin after Labor Day and to end mid-June.  A one and 1/2 week Christmas break was the preference along with a winter break that aligns with the State B basketball tournament in Spokane. 
 
This data was used in developing a calendar that has students starting after Labor Day and getting out June 13th.  There are also four days built in that can be cancelled for make-up days.  The March 14th teacher work day is one of those days.  If it is cancelled because of a make-up day, the teachers will be allowed to make this day up at a later time such as we did this year.  The other three days are the winter break days on Feb. 27-29.
 
In conclusion, the information we gathered in this process will be used to build future calendars.  It was a lot of work putting all this data together and analyzing it, but in the future, we now know what people want in a calendar and we can build it in each year.  Now people know that we will be less likely to go late in the summer because of the built in gray days.  We will be starting after Labor Day with the exception of the two years in the calendar cycle that put Labor Day after the 5th.  In those years (not until 2009,) we will begin school the Thursday before Labor Day.  This allows us to use a "perpetual calendar," which will follow the same guidelines as this one each year.  I have included a PowerPoint presentation of the survey that I gave to the board.  The calendar can be accessed via the District web site at: http://www.naselle.wednet.edu/NaselleSchools/calendar/index.htm .
 
Thank you to all of you who filled out surveys.  If you have any questions regarding this calendar, don't hesitate to e-mail or call.
 
Sincerely,
Alan Bennett
Superintendent
Naselle Grays River Valley School District