School district relaunches public survey on year-round model

By HEATHER RUPPE

Colleton County School District leaders are saying a technical glitch has forced them to stop using a recent public survey that takes public input on which school calendar option should be recommended to the school board.
Now, the district has relaunched the survey on its Web site.
There are two calendar choices for parents and community members to choose from: one is a traditional model and the other is a modified, or a year-round school calendar.
When asked for details about the technical glitch, Colleton County School District Superintendent Dr. Vallerie Cave said the survey was changed to ensure accuracy.
The new survey has been relaunched and will close on March 6th at 4:30 p.m.
“In order to ensure that all stakeholders took the survey only once for the accuracy of data reporting we changed our survey tool to reflect a more effective reporting system,” said Cave. “All stakeholders are able to take the survey under the new tool.”
The two school calendar options include a traditional calendar and a modified calendar, which resembles more of a “year-round” school option.
Both calendars have Colleton students attending school 180 days a year, with teachers working 190 days. These are the minimal state requirements for school attendance.
The surveys can be found on a link on the school district’s Web site, at www.colleton.k12.sc.us.

Traditional Calendar
With the traditional calendar option, students would return to school on August 22nd of 2022 with the last day of school scheduled for June 9 of 2023.
This calendar option includes a student break on Oct. 25-28.
It has a Thanksgiving break for students on Nov. 23-25.
The usual holiday break is scheduled for Dec. 19 – Dec. 30th, with a spring break scheduled from March 3-7th.

Modified Calendar
Under the modified calendar, the first day of school will be August 1st of 2022 and the last day will be June 7th of 2023.
This version also includes a student break from Oct. 4 – Oct. 14 with another fall (Thanksgiving) break from Nov. 23-25.
Another break is scheduled from Dec. 23 – Jan. 8th, with a two-week spring break slated for March 20--March 31st.
In recent town hall meetings hosted by the school district, Colleton County Superintendent Dr. Vallerie Cave supported the modified calendar, saying this is the model best for students. However, there have been questions from parents as to how this year-round calendar would impact student athletes, teachers and district support staff, such as bus drivers. This newspaper has asked school district leaders for these answers. However, answers to these questions were not received by our press deadline on Tuesday morning.
We will continue to follow this story.