Board of Education Considers Changing School Calendar

The Bernards Board of Education will consider adopting the Somerset County school calendar for the 2012-2013 school year at its next meeting on January 11, 2010.

The county calendar is used by most of the schools in the district but not for Bernards schools. Differences include a long weekend off in February instead of the traditional weeklong mid-winter recess in February, and spring break would be a week in March instead of April.

After looking at variations of the tradition calendar, board member Bev Darvin Cwerner concluded that the county calendar would enable students to get out of school nearly a week earlier and have Martin Luther King Jr. day off – two concerns voiced by a parent at the board meeting on Dec. 14.

The county calendar could also save the schools an unspecified amount of money due to improving shared services (such as transportation costs by always running buses on the same days as other county schools), allowing teachers and staff to attend cheaper training programs during the same days as county calendar schools and by having to hire fewer substitutes on days when the county has off but Bernards has school, which are characterized by higher absentee rates according to Darvin Cwerner.

"We [want to do] this for many reasons," Darvin Cwerner said. "There are some inherent cost savings. ... [But] it can be very hard to put a number on [them]."

Darvin Cwerner also said that legislation has been recommended on the state level to require all schools to adhere to their county calendars – forcing Bernards to make the switch if passed.

Board member Louis Carlucci made a successful motion at the Dec. 14 meeting that the switch be tabled until the next meeting in January, however, because public opinion has been strongly in favor of the current, traditional school calendar.

In November 2008, the board conducted a survey of 776 parents, 295 staff and 124 students as to which type of calendar they prefer. Participants in the survey were given a choice between the current calendar, a variation on the current calendar and the county calendar.

Roughly 59 percent of the 1195 respondents preferred the current calendar compared to just 23 percent for the county calendar, making the ratio of those preferring the current system over the county's just under 3:1. Fifty-nine percent of parents and 68 percent of staff preferred the current calendar (against 24 percent and 20 percent, respectively for the county calendar).

"I think that there has to be careful consideration as to the fact that the teacher's overwhelmingly want the [current] schedule," said one parent at the Dec. 14 meeting. "And the parents want it too."

Another parent worried that if the weeklong break in February was replaced with a long weekend; it would turn into a "working weekend" for children to finish projects and other homework assignments. There were also concerns that for health reasons it is important to take a longer break in February to rid the school of winter germs and give kids a chance to recuperate from illnesses.

Community members wishing to weigh in will be given a chance at the next board meeting on Jan. 11, when the issue could once again be brought to a vote.