Resolution to Change First Day of School, September 2010

UPDATE: Chancellor Klein ultimately decided to leave the first day of school as Wednesday, September 8th. Thursday and Friday will be school holidays and school will resume on Monday, September 13th.

I've heard from hundreds of parents who want to move the first day of school in September from Wednesday, September 8th 2010 to the following Monday. As it stands, we start school Wednesday and then have a four day weekend. There is an email campaign to the Chancellor but he has yet to respond or even acknowledge the issue. Unless we hear from the DOE, I will introduce the resolution below at tomorrow's PEP meeting:

Resolution Regarding the First Day of School, September 2010
Patrick J. Sullivan, Manhattan Member, Panel for Educational Policy
June 21st, 2010

Whereas the current school calendar school begins on Wednesday, September 8th and is followed by two days of school closures before resuming on Monday, September 13th and

Whereas many public school families make arrangements to secure childcare for their children during the summer and may face financial or logistical hardships to terminate this care and arrange for care outside of the single, midweek school day and

Whereas young children, especially entering Kindergartners, will be confused by the single day creating a more difficult transition and

Whereas the mayor and chancellor have cited absenteeism as a significant problem and recently launched a dedicated task force to combat it and

Whereas a single school day followed by a four day weekend is likely to result in higher rate of absences and

Whereas the high rate of absences will likely necessitate the complete repetition of Wednesday’s orientation and lesson materials when students return on the following Monday and

Whereas this schedule was developed without input from the community the schools are designed to serve and

Whereas the calendar contains a number of professional development and chancellor's special holidays (e.g. "Brooklyn-Queens Day") that would be more obvious and appropriate days to hold instruction, therefore let it be

Resolved, the Panel for Educational Policy calls upon the chancellor to closely scrutinize the public school calendar and seek ways to shift the first day of school to Monday, September 13th, 2010.