Olympia school officials, families say more info needed for decision on balanced calendar
A citizens advisory committee has been working for more than six months to explore the concept of a balanced calendar for the Olympia School District.
Officials in the district started toying with the idea of a stretched-out schedule after North Thurston Public Schools started exploring it themselves. But the idea was shot down by North Thurston’s advisory committee in May.
According to the Olympia district’s website, a balanced calendar would spread out the 180-day school calendar to no longer be built around summer break.
“Instead of a calendar dominated by a very long summer break, students would have more periodic, longer breaks throughout the school year and a shorter summer break,” the website says. “Students attending schools that follow a balanced calendar receive the same number of instructional days and hours as those who attend schools that follow a traditional calendar.”
Sandy Hallstrom, a district parent and co-facilitator of Olympia’s advisory committee, gave a presentation to the Olympia School Board on Thursday that included findings and recommendations based on a spring survey of district staff, parents and students. The committee isn’t ready to go all in on a balanced calendar plan, and survey results showed that many students and parents aren’t, either.
OSD started exploring the idea of a balanced calendar after $200 million in state and federal school emergency relief funds were approved in 2021 for learning recovery during the pandemic, according to the district’s website. The district received a $75,000 grant to explore the concept in hopes of reducing the amount of learning progress students lose over the summer.
Hallstrom said 3,033 survey respondents were asked whether the school board should convene the advisory committee in the fall to further explore the concept, and what their current thinking was about a balanced calendar.
Under the first question, 46.5% of respondents said “yes” to reconvening in the fall, and 40% said no. The rest said they were unsure, which may mean they need more information about the concept.
Of the respondents, family members were the largest group to respond “yes” to reconvening, at 52.3%. Staff members were split on reconvening. And 56% of students said not to convene.
For the second question, respondents were asked to choose between three statements: Keep current calendar, pursue balanced calendar, or undecided/need more information. Hallstrom said 46.2% of respondents said to keep the current calendar, 37% said to pursue a balanced calendar and 16.8% said they were undecided/needed more information.
The survey summary says students overwhelmingly wanted to keep the current calendar, at 73.6%.
A person at the board meeting told the school board she was in a senior classroom and heard students concerned about how summer opportunities such as internships and jobs would pan out with a balanced calendar.
Board member and advisory committee co-facilitator Scott Clifthorne said the short-term transition would be tough, but projecting 10 years into the future, he sees those student opportunities evolving to match the school schedule.
The data isn’t perfect though. Only 387 of the district’s approximately 10,000 students participated in the survey, and they were overrepresented by sixth graders from Washington Middle School, according to the survey summary. The board recommended that students have a larger voice in the process moving forward.
Hallstrom said the committee is recommending they reconvene in the fall to continue exploring the concept and to better inform people of what a balanced calendar looks like. Board member Hilary Seidel said she’s seen a lot of reference to the concept as being like a 9-to-5 job with little room for breaks. But she reassured people that breaks still exist throughout the year.
Hallstrom made several recommendations within the plan to reconvene for the 2022-2023 school year, including partnering more closely with other districts in the region.
The North Thurston Public Schools said they’d reconsider the concept if other districts went for it. She also recommended using existing grant money to foster more community involvement and get more feedback from regional partners such as childcare providers.
This story was originally published July 17, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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