By HEATHER RUPPE
The Colleton County School Board has voted to support the public’s decision and use a traditional school calendar for the coming school year, but the board’s vote also included a plan to switch to a modified “year-round” calendar for the 2023-2024 school year.
During a recent school board meeting, held on March 15th, the Colleton County School Board voted 6-1 to follow the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. Vallerie Cave, who asked the board to follow the public’s wishes in continuing with the traditional calendar for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year, but to go ahead and implement her recommendation of the year-round calendar for the following school year, for the 2023-2024 school year.
“I still believe the modified calendar is what we need to do for our district …,” said Cave, adding that the modified calendar provides for “continuous instruction and learning for all of our children” and “lessens the learning loss.” She also said it has a higher attendance rate for students and fewer substitute teacher days. She also said it allows for a “variety of sports” during the sessions.
The survey, which was launched a second time by the district to make sure people could only take the survey once each, shows that there 849 responses across the entire community.
Of those who responded, 29 percent were staff members; 24.7 percent were students; 13.1 percent were community members; and 43.9 percent were parents.
Overwhelmingly, 70.3 percent of those who responded said they want the traditional calendar, compared to nearly 30 percent who want the modified calendar.
Of those who voted for the traditional calendar, the majority were parents, with 215 parents choosing the traditional calendar, compared to 96 parents who voted in favor of the modified.
Also, the Colleton County students who participated in the survey overwhelmingly chose the traditional calendar, with 173 of the 200 students choosing the traditional calendar over the modified version.
“That’s not a significant number of people who voted … We have 4,996 students in our school district,” said Cave, during the school board meeting. “And we only had 849 people to take a survey. That’s not a sampling of our district, but I hear the voices of the people,” she said.
The non-favorable comments were summarized and include child care issues; the loss of a summer break; not enough down-time for teachers; cuts out summer travel for families; sporadic breaks too often; and cuts out summer employment and travel.
However, favorable comments listed by survey takers who voted in favor of the modified calendar include:
Cave then recommended the traditional calendar be used for the coming school year, but she asked the school board to also vote to go ahead and implement the modified calendar for the next school year, starting in 2023. Cave said the modified calendar is best for Colleton students.
“I don’t believe we are making the best decision at this time for the children, but I’d like to be able to give the community time to make the shift,” she said, adding that data from the Greenwood School District supports the modified calendar “works” in performance and retention.
“We will do the same thing eventually,” she told the school board, referencing Colleton using the modified calendar instead of the traditional calendar.
Before voting to follow Cave’s recommendation, several school board members spoke.
“I personally heard from many citizens, asking why are we doing this now … I’ve always said I’m in favor of a modified calendar … we can’t forget the purpose of the school system, which is to bring all students to academic proficiency. But, like you said, even in elections, the majority wins. The public has spoken,” said Colleton County School Board Chairman William Bowman.
School Board members then said they will “sell” the idea that the modified calendar will work so the community will “buy into” the idea.
“Personally, and I understand, but as I’ve heard from many of our constituents, they are all in favor of the traditional calendar. I’m not so much in favor of being told I will be going into the modified calendar for the following year … we need to speak to our constituents and we work for them,” said school board member Tim Mabry, who said he wants the board to “consider” the modified calendar when it is brought back to the board in one year.
However, other school board members supported Cave’s recommendation to move the Colleton school system into the modified calendar without a different vote in the future. “If we are going to change and do better … sooner or later, we have to do something different,” said school board member Charles Murdaugh, who said the school board should move forward with Cave’s recommendation.
Fellow school board member Sharon Witkin echoed Murdaugh’s comments.
“This board needs to commit to what we are going to do,” she said, adding that the board should commit to a decision so that the community can plan and parents can plan. Witkin also said she supports data coming from Greenwood County, saying “the statistics will knock you over,” in terms of the modified calendar supporting better academics.
Bowman also said the district’s report cards reflect that “some things have not been working” and that some changes need to be made.
“When you have 85 percent of your students not doing math on grade level, I don’t think anybody is comfortable with that … we need to do something different,” he said.
The board then voted 6-1 to accept Cave’s recommendation and to use the traditional calendar for the incoming school year and then to automatically move into the modified calendar for the following school year, 2023-2024. Mabry voted against the motion.
As part of the board’s discussion, the traditional calendar will also be adjusted, and those adjustments will be given to the school board for their approval in a future meeting.
The traditional calendar will be available for public viewing on the school district’s Web site.
