Students in Fort Mill will start some weekends a bit earlier; teachers get time to plan
%20(2)%20(1).JPG "Fort Mill school officals talk calendar changes from early dismissal Fridays to a possible year-round approach.")
Parents and students in Fort Mill schools will get a little extra weekend time starting this fall.
The Fort Mill school board voted Tuesday night to add six early release dates to the 2022-23 calendar. All six dates are Fridays. Students will get out of school two hours early.
Bell times vary by elementary, middle and high school students.
While the extra hours may help parents who have weekend travel plans or appointments to set, the plan is all about teachers. They will get the two-hour segments, six times during the school year, to plan lessons and collaborate.
“This has been the No. 1 teacher request, is time to get together with each other and plan, and strategize and identify student concerns,” said School Board Chair Kristy Spears.
District spokesperson Joe Burke said school officials heard that request pre-COVID, but even more during the pandemic. They aren’t alone. There are proposed pieces of legislation in Columbia aimed to increase teacher planning time. One mentioned, Burke said, would be a daily planning requirement.
If state law changes to allow more plan time in teacher schedules, the district would revisit the six early release days approved Tuesday night.
“We wouldn’t be able to structure that, and this,” Burke said of one 30-minutes-a-day proposal.
The dates approved for next school year are Sept. 30, Oct. 28 and Dec. 2 in 2022 and Jan. 27, March 3 and April 28 in 2023.
Fort Mill schools currently have students in classes for more time each week than is required by state law. So no other parts of the schedule would have to be modified. Three existing half-days would be unchanged.
Meal service shouldn’t be impacted on the early dismissal days.
“We’re not adding any time to make this happen,” Burke said.
The district also would make sure teachers get the extra hours to plan. Often teacher workdays involve in-service events with speakers or professional development.
“These days are strictly for teacher planning or collaboration with other teachers,” Burke said.
A dozen hours during the school year may not seem like much extra time to plan, but school officials believe teachers will appreciate them.
“Teachers would tell you that they could do a lot with that time,” Burke said.
At a time when teacher shortages are common throughout education, issues like planning time are and will continue to be important, board members say.
“We must do anything we possibly can to support teachers in the classroom,” said board member Brian Murphy.
The district also tried to be as accommodating as possible for parents, by picking all Fridays.
“From a parent standpoint I suspect it will be a little more beneficial,” Spears said.
Burke, who communicates with various departments within the district and hears parents’ input to come up with draft academic calendars, agrees.
“The early Friday afternoons are generally well accepted,” he said.
2023-24 Fort Mill school calendar
The early Friday dismissals also appear on a proposed school calendar for the 2023-24 year. Burke presented that calendar to the board Monday night for an initial look. It wasn’t an easy calendar to create.
“This is the worst year possible for the start date in South Carolina,” Burke said.
State law doesn’t allow school to start prior to the third Monday in August. In 2023, August starts on a Tuesday so the school year essentially begins the fourth week of August. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a week earlier than usual that school year. At least, Burke said, it isn’t an election year.
“That would be the only thing that could make it worse,” Burke said.
The school calendar, if approved, would start Aug. 21, 2023 and end May 31, 2024. Second semester would have 10 more days than first, an impact mainly to high school students who change classes at the semester break. Christmas and New Year’s that school year fall on Mondays, so evening out the semesters would mean high school students returning from winter break to take and exam. Spring break would be the week after Easter.
Year round school, state law
For years board members in Fort Mill have asked for or inquired about more local control of a school start date. Burke said starting school even a week earlier than is allowed by state law now would iron out many of the scheduling issues the district faces.
Spears said there have been discussions in other districts about alternatives to work around the state law.
“I’ve seen a few districts that have implied that they were doing some form of a...modified year-round (schedule),” Spears said. “I’ve also heard there’s been some push back.”
That concept would shorten summer break to about six weeks, but add week breaks and other days off throughout the school year.
“I think some districts close to us are considering it for two years out, probably because of this situation,” said Superintendet Chuck Epps.
Superintendents have been told, Epps said, that the legislature is watching the situation closely and doesn’t want districts to attempt to game the system.
“We’ll see how long this is even an option,” Epps said.
Epps said he isn’t leading the charge and any such change in Fort Mill would have to involve significant parent input.
“It’s very different,” he said. “Not saying it’s bad or good, it’s just different. So the community would have to have buy-in. It would be drastic change right there at the first.”
Burke said the district hasn’t explored the modified year-round schedule, and it may well not be an option come 2023. Epps said there are plenty of factors to consider on a plan that would essentially shorten summer breaks and spread the rest of them throughout the year.
“The Carowinds people of the world would be pretty upset,” Epps said.
Burke said there will be tight calendars for the next several years, but they will be easier to schedule as Aug. 1 moves further away from a Tuesday.
“This is the perfect storm year where everything is pretty much working against us,” Burke said.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 8:17 AM.
