The Policy Committee at Palisades Charter High has proposed changing the school-year calendar in an attempt to raise Advanced Placement (AP) scores and lower class sizes. But the proposed changes have already sparked an intense debate among local parents and teachers. If the changes are approved, the first semester of next school year would begin August 13, about three weeks earlier than usual. That semester would end before a two-week winter break on December 21. The second semester would begin January 7 and end June 6, two weeks earlier than normal. Spring break would last for two weeks, one week longer than usual. The number of instructional days would stay the same. Because PaliHi is the only local school seriously considering the calendar change, many parents fear that the school’s calendar would conflict with local elementary and middle school schedules. Early this month, PaliHi sent parents the proposed changes and asked for their input. The deadline for submitting suggestions to the Policy Committee was September 12. There will also be an open forum for parents on October 6 at 6 p.m. in Mercer Hall, and parents present at that forum will be polled on the proposal. Policy Committee Chair Cheryl Onoye said one source of the proposed change came from the school’s Academic Watch Committee, which searches for ways to raise student achievement. Academic Watch members, she said, identified the timing of winter break as a consistent source of student hardship. Because the first semester does not end until after winter break, students return after weeks of vacation to final exams. And some teachers argue that student performance on final exams suffers unnecessarily because of awkward timing of exams and vacation. For Eileen Savage, a parent of students at PaliHi and Paul Revere Middle School, a winter vacation without school stress is the most convincing reason to support the changes. “Vacations have really suffered when my kids have papers and tests waiting for them when they get back from break,” she said. The Policy Committee has also endorsed the changes to provide an additional three weeks of instruction before students take AP exams. With this extra time, the Committee predicts better student preparation for the exams. Mary Redclay, an honors and AP English teacher, downplayed the benefit of an extra three weeks of instruction before the AP exams. “I don’t think three extra weeks will help them pass the AP test. If they have analytical skills, then they’ll pass. Three weeks here or there won’t make a difference,” she said. Redclay acknowledged that for more fact-sensitive subjects, an extra three weeks might be more helpful. Among the calendar change’s other alleged benefits, the Policy Committee hopes that dual enrollment of students at local community colleges would be facilitated. Onoye said that by starting the school year earlier, PaliHi’s schedule would be more compatible with community colleges. Students could take classes at community colleges for high school credit, and class sizes at PaliHi could decrease, Onoye said. It is unknown how many students would take classes at local community colleges, notably Santa Monica College and West Los Angeles College. At these schools, classes do not begin until late August and early September. Because PaliHi’s classes would end two to three weeks earlier than most local high schools, the Policy Committee argues that students would have an advantage in acquiring summer jobs. Despite these proposed advantages, several parents who spoke with the Palisadian-Post disputed the need for change. The most common anxiety among parents was the prospect of conflicting school schedules. Because most schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, including local elementary and middle schools, show no sign of changing their schedules, parents with children at PaliHi and other public schools might have to juggle incompatible school calendars. One PaliHi mother, who requested to have her name withheld, said that starting school in early to mid-August would keep students from taking summer school and summer programs. She added that because most summer jobs (such as youth camps) last until Labor Day, the earlier school date would disqualify them. For Bud Kling, a PaliHi board member and faculty president, the reasons for approving the calendar change are less compelling now than they were the last time the same change was proposed more than a year ago. Kling said that the earlier proposal was conditional on other Palisades public schools also changing. These local schools have not indicated that they plan to change their calendars. Kling, a longtime tennis coach, also worries that the proposed calendar would cause significant schedule conflicts for student athletes. Because most local high school sports are based on LAUSD schedules, sports finals and final exams would likely occur on the same days, he said.
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