Uncertainty dominates Rockville Centre school board talks

A trio of thorny issues — the 2012-13 school calendar, linking teacher evaluations to state aid, and the 2 percent tax levy cap — topped the agenda at the Jan. 18 Board of Education meeting.

Perhaps the most pressing concern was the district’s calendar, which is usually established long before this time of the year. It is being held up, according to schools Superintendent Dr. William Johnson, because the district doesn’t yet know when the next school year will end.

“We haven’t heard from the state when the Regents will be administered,” Johnson said, “[but] we’re anticipating that they’ll be five days earlier.” Although there has been no official word from the State Education Department, school officials expect the last Regents exams to be given on June 14, 2013.

That end date would leave the district with five days to make up, and board members would have to choose one of two options: to start school on Aug. 27 (if state legislators clear the way for instruction to begin prior to Sept. 1), or to start school as usual, after Labor Day, and shorten both the February and Easter/Passover breaks.

New York state mandates a minimum of 180 instructional school days a year, and the Rockville Centre district has traditionally had 184. But at last week’s meeting, even as they tabled the adoption of the 2012-13 calendar, trustees voted unanimously to make Nov. 6, Election Day, a superintendent’s conference day, when only teachers and staff will report to school, and Monday, March 25, 2013, the start of the Easter/Passover break. That leaves students with 182 instructional days.

Although Johnson said he expects to know within the next few weeks whether the 2013 Regents will be moved, he jokingly advised families to “buy travel insurance.” And in a remark that made clear the hostility many education professionals feel toward the state’s new teacher evaluation system, he added, “This has nothing to do with the children or the instructional environment. This has to do with getting test data early enough to be in a position to fire teachers.”

What do you think?

Would you prefer a late-August school start or shortened February and Easter/Passover breaks?