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20 Hurricane Makeup Days Built into Palm Beach County's Revised School Calendar

Posted on: Thursday, 6 April 2006, 18:00 CDT

By Marc Freeman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Apr. 6--A just-revised Palm Beach County schools 2006-07 calendar features a later Spring Break and a record 20 hurricane makeup days.

The school year will be Aug. 16-June 1, if makeup dates of June 4 and 5 aren't needed.

"We have to prepare for every eventuality," Superintendent Art Johnson told the School Board before it approved the calendar.

Board members Wednesday repeated their vows that students must attend school for the full 180-day schedule. There will be no repeats of the past two school years, when 11 of 23 days canceled for hurricanes weren't made up thanks to a state-sanctioned waiver.

"We should be making up every day, every year unless there is some impossibility," Vice Chairman Bill Graham said.

The new calendar also allows the flexibility of moving the dates of the reading, math and science portions of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test back two weeks, to allow extra preparation time should hurricanes knock out days earlier in the year. The FCAT will begin Feb. 26.

Board members chose to start Spring Break -- April 2-9 -- four days earlier than Johnson recommended.

This year, Spring Break was March 20-27.

In other business Wednesday, the School Board:

Listened to a presentation from the Arts-In-Education Task Force -- a group of teachers, arts supporters and providers -- that recommended spending $18 million more during the next five years to improve arts education. The money would be used for extra teachers and supplies.

Approved a new policy to diversify schools based in part on family income. Economic diversity will be just one of many factors that the district's Advisory Boundary Committee can use when drawing school attendance zones. The new policy states students can't be bused long distances to achieve a socioeconomic balance. The committee will meet tonight to discuss boundaries for the 2007-08 school year.

Asked a circuit court judge for guidance on whether Boynton Beach High School can install a marquee at its entrance on Park Ridge and Gateway boulevards. Quantum Community Development District has sought court action to block it, saying all signs require approval. School District officials say the sign meets local zoning standards and that Quantum has been stonewalling them.

Approved spending $105,000 through June 30 to lease a building occupied by the former Survivors West Palm Beach charter school. The district's takeover of the school, 1310 Congress Ave., is under appeal and classes remain in session. The lease would cost about $328,500 a year for the next five years. The district also recently assumed the lease of Survivors' Boynton Beach site.

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Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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