As student achievement continues to improve throughout the district, concern pertaining to the welfare of each student increases as well. In a recent letter addressed to the Oak Park Community and Staff, the OPUSD Calendar Committee stated, “For quite some time the school district has been searching for ways to reduce stress on our children and have taken steps in that direction.” In response to research, proposals and informative events on the subject matter, the committee has approved a two-week calendar shift for the 2015-2016 school year.

With this proposed change, the students’ summer will be reduced by two full weeks. School will start on August 11, 2015 and dismiss on May 27, 2016.

Some may consider this a benefit, as the first semester will end before winter break, giving students a true break from school as opposed to the current school year. As it has been for the past few years, students, mainly high school students, are burdened with the presence of finals just around the corner while on their winter recess.

Ms. Litten stated, “We would make a commitment as a high school too. No assignments and no homework over winter break.”

Because of this shift, it has been presumed that air conditioning costs will rise as a result of the mid-summer heat during the first few weeks of this proposed calendar year. This has been a definite concern among the Calendar Committee; however, the committee pointed out that the district will be spending money on air conditioning whether it be during the last few weeks of May and June or the first few weeks of August.

According to the Calendar Committee, with three-fourths of high school students enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) classes, the benefit of this shift can be seen. Allowing students the maximum amount of time to prepare with their teachers before taking these exams during May will benefit not only the students but also the instructors. Ms. Midiri commented, “I’m thrilled that we’re going to have an early start. I’m thrilled that I’ll have extra time for AP work and we’ll be able to end the year early.”

Elementary and middle students may argue, however, that they have no reason to care for these exams because they will not be taking them anyways. Still, it may be reasonable to claim that they will all be high school students in the future.

“We have to make a decision as a community – what’s best for our children,” the committee commented.

Others, however, have slight problems with the change. One Oak Park High School instructor, Mrs. Cissell, stated, “December is all about performances…it’s hard for me to take all those events away from the choir when that’s really our main time.”

From a spring athlete point of view, seniors may graduate before their season ends. Mr. Hall stated, “Other schools are already facing [this] reality. They’re having their graduation ceremonies when other kids are going out to latter rounds of CIF playoffs.”

At many other school districts such as LAUSD, a calendar shift was enacted only for the districts’ high school(s). With this specialized approach, families were broken up, as sibling breaks fell at different times during the year, creating all kinds of “logistical nightmares” as Mr. Martin put it during the Oak Park High School Calendar Committee meeting. With this in mind, the committee stated that by creating this shift across the whole school district, the change would bring families together by not only correlating elementary, middle and high school breaks, but also by relieving older siblings of the stress of studying during break at the same time.

Additionally, talk of moving the school year forward gradually instead of two weeks at one time was considered, but eventually put down as school districts such as La Cañada said that if they had to do move their calendar forward again, would have changed their schedule all at once, as they have had to suffer from change for a couple of years rather than just one.

In regards to summer school, many parents and students have wondered how this calendar shift will affect the relatively brief summer break, in regards to summer school, that will result in 2015. This past summer, the Friends of Oak Park Schools, the organization that currently runs Oak Park summer school, has already switched to a three-week summer school, where students are able to take a class full day that would have taken them six-weeks with the old half-day schedule. Mr. Buchanan stated, “One of the ways that LVUSD handled this that first year is that they doubled up. They ran a shorter summer school but the days were longer.”