BENTONVILLE -- Some parents are upset with the proposal to abolish the School District's two-calendar system, a decision on which is likely to come next week.
"There's a lot of frustration at the moment," said Marcus Osborne, president of the parent-teacher organization at R.E. Baker Elementary School.
Next meeting
The Bentonville School Board’s next meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Nov. 16. Time will be allowed for public comment, as is usual at regular monthly board meetings. Administrators have discussed moving the meeting to accommodate a large crowd, but as of Friday no decision had been made on the location.
Source: Staff report
The elementary principals support switching to one calendar as a way of easing stress caused by overcrowding and the "overflow" of students from their zoned schools to those that have space. The School Board discussed the matter Nov. 2 and agreed to vote on it at the next meeting Nov. 16.
Two of the 10 elementary schools, R.E. Baker and Elm Tree, operate on the nontraditional calendar, which starts earlier, ends later and features more breaks than the traditional calendar. The nontraditional schools are schools of choice and operate on their own zoning scheme, with half the district zoned for R.E. Baker and half zoned for Elm Tree.
Placing all the schools on the same calendar -- thus incorporating them into one zoning scheme -- would create greater flexibility for the district and allow more students to attend a school close to their homes, district officials say.
The frequent transfers of students into and out of the schools for which they are zoned hampers each school's ability to establish a culture and provide stability for both children and staff members, the principals said.
"Not only does that impact how we serve families, it impacts how we deliver instruction," said Lisa St. John, principal of Apple Glen Elementary School, at Monday's board meeting. "We cannot continue to put these children and these families through this ambiguity about where their child is going to go to school."
Principals have advocated for the switch to one calendar for at least a year. They have said the type of calendar does not matter to them, just that it's the same for all schools.
A draft proposal of the calendar for 2016-17, released by the district Friday, closely resembles the district's traditional calendar. The proposal states it is "for discussion purposes only."
The only substantial difference between the draft calendar and the typical traditional calendar is a three-day fall break during the second week of October. The school year would start Aug. 15, 2016, and end May 25, 2017.
The proposal applies only to the elementary and middle schools. It's unclear whether junior highs and high schools would adopt it as well.
Osborne, who has one child attending R.E. Baker, said he's received at least 20 email from other Baker parents concerned about the calendar switch.
"There's enormous frustration with it, because what was promised was there would be a review of a hybrid approach and there might be something in the middle that could be done," Osborne said.
The problem with overcrowding and overflow students has less to do with the two-calendar system as it does with the district's growth rate, Osborne said.
"The problem is the district is growing so rapidly, the facilities plan struggles to keep up," he said. "It's a growth problem. I think they're also gun-shy about asking (voters) for more money to build more schools."
Heather Dolan is the mother of a first-grader at Elm Tree, the district's other nontraditional-calendar school. Dolan wasn't aware of the calendar proposal until it came up at last week's board meeting.
"It kind of makes me sad," Dolan said. "We chose nontraditional for a reason and really enjoy it. I think it's better for the kids."
Dolan has another child in middle school, which operates on the traditional calendar. She prefers the nontraditional one. It includes a two-week break in October.
"By the time we get to October, the kids are tired already," she said. "It gives them a little break, and then you come back refreshed and ready to learn again."
She said she had drafted a long letter she planned to submit to her representative on the School Board.
Bentonville has had a nontraditional calendar for about 20 years, according to Tamara Gibson, director of instruction for the elementary and middle school levels. A recent study by district officials showed the cost of maintaining two calendars was about $36,000 during the 2012-13 school year. The study also found no significant difference in academic achievement between the nontraditional- and the traditional-calendar schools.
Rationale
Elementary school principals co-wrote a letter to Superintendent Michael Poore and the School Board last November requesting all of their buildings be put on the same calendar.
The letter provided statistics showing percentages of fourth-graders who have been at their respective schools since kindergarten. Those percentages ranged from a low of 9.2 percent at Thomas Jefferson Elementary to a high of 60.5 percent at Elm Tree. Across nine schools, 37.8 percent of fourth-graders have been at their schools since kindergarten. Willowbrook couldn't be counted because it's been open only since the 2012-13 school year.
Because of overcrowding, some students are "overflowed" from their zoned schools to other schools where space is available. The principals asked Poore and the board to consider the impact rezoning and overflow have on student learning.
"There is a reason why the (Arkansas Department of Education) removes highly mobile students' test scores when reporting to the public," the letter stated.
The district has nearly 240 more elementary-level students than it did when the principals wrote their letter.
"It causes a huge impact. We're used to doing a little at a time, but adding 240 in one year rocked our world," St. John said at last week's board meeting.
Several principals did not return messages seeking comment last week, but they collectively answered a few questions submitted to them through the district. The answers were returned in writing.
Creating a common calendar would allow schools to be zoned more appropriately and alleviate most of the overflow challenges the schools face, principals wrote.
"Currently, 83 percent of our children attend traditional calendar schools. Should the district continue with two calendars in the elementary school, the negative impact will continue to increase," principals wrote.
Transporting kids to their schools on time is also proving challenging for the district, principals wrote. Hundreds of students are having to board buses early. Some kindergarten students have to board buses as early as 6 a.m. to arrive at their zoned school, then must transfer to another bus to get to their overflow school, usually arriving late, principals wrote.
Timing
If the board decides to go with one calendar, the next question is when to implement it.
Switching to one calendar would require a rezoning of the schools, because the traditional and nontraditional schools operate on separate zoning schemes.
The board could do that next year, as the principals prefer, or the board could put it off until the 2017-18 school year, when a new elementary school is expected to open and rezoning would be necessary anyway.
Dolan said she'd prefer the latter option.
"I think we can figure out how to get through another year and then see where the numbers are," she said.
Administrators said up to 80 percent of elementary students could change schools next year if the one-calendar system is adopted for 2016-17. The following year's rezoning would affect much fewer students; still, it's likely hundreds of children would be starting at a new school for the third time in three years in fall 2017.
Poore said last week his email inbox was flooded with messages on the issue following Monday's board meeting. In his weekly written report to board members on Friday, he wrote he always is amazed by some of the things parents say.
"I have heard everything from supporters of the nontraditional calendar needing it to stay in place to allow them to access shorter lines at Disney to folks sharing that class sizes are smaller at the nontraditional schools, to maybe the most harmful statement and most untrue statement that a change will lead to students having to go to lower-performing schools," Poore wrote.
Brent Leas, a board member, said he'd rather do the rezoning all in one sweep, but he is sympathetic to the administration's preference to do one next year.
"It's not going to be easy or fun, but if they come forward with some good data, I'll support that," Leas said.
Leas was bombarded with complaints last year when the administration proposed a rezoning that would have taken effect this school year. Many of those complaints came from parents at Cooper Elementary in Bella Vista. The board eventually rejected that proposal in part because of the public's dissatisfaction with it.
On Friday, Leas said he'd received about 10 email related to the calendar proposal. Most of the writers have been receptive to the idea and asked to have some input on the new calendar, he said.
"I think this community is mindful of the need we all have to come to an understanding on the massive growth we've got, and that with that growth comes some pain," Leas said. "We'll try to minimize the pain."
The last time elementary school zones changed was the 2013-14 school year, when the district opened additional classrooms at several schools to accommodate growth.
NW News on 11/09/2015