The aptly named “calendar committee” of City of Decatur Schools has come up with two new calendar proposals for the 2009 school year in response to parents’ requests for a later school start date and school employees request for a mid-semester break to evaluate and redirect student performance.

The two new calendars are posted (in pdf format) on the CDS website.

Option A starts a week earlier (August 3rd) than the current adopted schedule and gives week long breaks in October and February that weren’t previously included in the calendar.

Option B starts two weeks later (August 24th) than the current adopted schedule, lasts three weeks longer (June 18th), and again provides a week long break in October and a 3 day break in February not previously included.

From what I can deduce, the extra time off is created primarily by either starting the school year earlier, ending the school year later, and condensing Teacher Work Days into longer blocks of time.

A letter to the community also mentions talks the Superintendent and Asst. Superintendent have already had with child care providers in the area and all involved believe that services would be available to those that needed them during these new extended breaks.

The reason the school system is bringing this idea forward so early is that they want to give residents time to provide feedback. They have even created a short online survey for parents, students, employees and school council members to take, asking which new schedule you prefer and if you have any additional comments.

Further detail and some initial reaction was recently documented by Ron Stay, who attended the March 3rd Calendar Info Session on the Winnona Park Message Board. (The full note is included in the continuation) In it, Ron states that the main impetus given by CDS to create the new schedule is to “provide academic ‘intervention’ to at-risk students at DHS and Renfroe” in the form of these additional weeks off during the school year. Also, Ron states that some members wonder why the current “traditional schedule” isn’t provided as an option in the survey.

Since I don’t have a dog (or child) in this fight, I will leave the opinion up to my readers. What will/did you tell CDS about this plan? CDS has given us plenty of time to discuss since they won’t present anything to the School Board until early 2009, but let’s get the ball rolling!

Thanks go to Cherie for pointing this out! Read the rest of this entry »

Ask and ye shall receive!

Yesterday a commenter asked if a map existed showing the city’s proposed north and east annexation.  Well, thanks to a link found on the Oakhurst Message Board, I found this presentation by Rosser International given to the school board regarding the annexation, which shows not only the proposed new boundaries of the city, but also a breakdown of how many students live in each area.

While this map (click it for an even larger version or go to the presentation)  shows the expansion north and east as described in the GoDeKalb article, it also shows an annexation to the northeast, up DeKalb Industrial to N. Decatur and east on Ponce to DeKalb Industrial Way (where the street where Paddywax and Wag-a-Lot reside).

This presentation seems to indicate that the school system is already many steps in to analyzing this issue and the rest of up are playing catch up.

A lot of interesting info on our neighborhoods in this presentation.  Be sure to check it out!

It’s official.  Last night, Decatur’s school board voted to make our city schools one of the first charter systems in the state.  It still needs to go before GA’s Board of Ed. in March or April for final approval.

Major changes?

1.  “Leadership teams” that would give parents and community members more of a say in program and finance decisions.

2.  “Incentive pay” for teachers

Click here to see the latest version of the petition that was approved last night.

Should be interesting to see how this potential change affects student performance in the coming years.  Stay tuned…

A group of Decatur teens involved in the Camp Fire USA program are pushing City of Decatur Schools to outlaw smoking on school grounds.

According to 11 Alive..

1. Fourteen Georgia districts have adopted the policy. It means signs on school grounds, similar to the drug-free zone signs.

2. The ban includes everybody: all adults, including visitors and those contracted to do work on campus.  In addition, it applies to those who come to football games or other school-sanctioned events.

Some may cringe at a law like this, which regulates an individual’s personal choices.  However, I think a ban of this nature is justified since it involves underage kids and the possibility of secondhand smoke.  I doubt its effectiveness on current smokers to quit (since they can just walk off school grounds to smoke and then come back) but it may be a deterrent for kids that consider taking up the habit.

In Decatur points out the following note on the City Schools of Decatur website:

UPDATE: We have recently received notification from the Georgia Department of Education that the deadline for submitting System Charter applications has been moved to January 15, 2008. In light of this recent change, the Decatur Board of Education will NOT be holding a special session on October 29^th to vote on the System Charter application. Instead, the board will hold a special session in November to decide whether or not the City Schools of Decatur will apply for System Charter status. More information to follow.

Please send feedback on this work in progress to .

Regardless of your stance on this issue, I think it’s good that the city has a little more breathing room to consider this change.  Everything was feeling just a little too rushed for such a big decision.

The Public Input Session is still on for tomorrow at 6:30p at Westchester Central Office.