Dear editor,
For the last two years I have been asking for some kind of justification as to why our superintendent promotes a school calendar that is counter-productive to the primary responsibilities of both the board and the superintendent…providing the best education possible for our children.
During a long telephone conversation with a board member, I was told no less than 20 times that “we can’t do that!” The “that” is to begin a transition to a different shape of school calendar (a trimester calendar). Our traditional calendar guarantees the loss of up to one-fourth of all learning from the previous year, as well as producing a corresponding waste of eight to ten million dollars spent educating students the previous year. Students go into the summer break with a “full tank of smarts” only to begin the process of forgetting up to one-quarter of all they were taught. John Hopkins University has joined the ever-growing body of educational research pointing to the traditional school calendar as the single cause of “summer learning loss.”
The board of education (BOE), according to Georgia law, is the only body authorized to change the school calendar. “We can’t do that” appears to be an incorrect statement, but that is exactly what the BOE believes. They have turned their backs to the “summer learning loss” problem. The wasted tax money doesn’t seem to concern them and they proceed to approve an inefficient, ineffective and counter-productive school calendar without so much as a belch.
Letter to the Editor
How is it that our leadership team of dedicated board members and superintendent refuse to recognize that this problem is real and will continue to degrade the quality of our instructional programs yearly. Did I mention the waste of tax dollars? “We can’t do that,” denies the obvious. Approving our calendar is about the only thing they can do under the law. Considering the substantial number of negative effects on student learning created by the traditional calendar, it appears that the BOE and the superintendent must be prioritizing the improvement of student learning somewhere between waxing the floors and replacing the odor killers in the urinals. By not beginning to lay the groundwork now, the BOE and the superintendent are declaring that their number one responsibility is not student learning. So, one must ask what is the secret attribute the traditional calendar possess? What hypnotic power does it have on the BOE and superintendent that numbs their senses and puts the mantra “we can’t do that” in their mouths? The truth is we simply cannot afford not to do it. I can’t speak for the BOE or the superintendent. But, you can ask for yourselves prior to the next election. Ask your superintendent why she has never offered a choice of calendars to the board?
Eliminating “summer learning loss”, along with its waste of millions of tax dollars, should be the priority of our leadership team. It would appear to this observer that the BOE has abandoned any pretense of leadership or acknowledgement that their principle responsibility is to improve student learning. It also appears that our superintendent may be more concerned about riding her luxury liner to retirement and leaving a wake-less ocean with no sight of her passing, than risk getting her hands dirty fighting for a better school system.
We must not accept the “we can’t do that” reply from our BOE. The dumbing down of this country must stop and eliminating “summer learning loss” by adopting a trimester calendar is a logical step in the right direction.
Bobby Ray Holland
Eliminating “summer learning loss”, along with its waste of millions of tax dollars, should be the priority of our leadership team. It would appear to this observer that the BOE has abandoned any pretense of leadership or acknowledgement that their principle responsibility is to improve student learning. It also appears that our superintendent may be more concerned about riding her luxury liner to retirement and leaving a wake-less ocean with no sight of her passing, than risk getting her hands dirty fighting for a better school system.
We must not accept the “we can’t do that” reply from our BOE. The dumbing down of this country must stop and eliminating “summer learning loss” by adopting a trimester calendar is a logical step in the right direction.
Bobby Ray Holland
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