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School to Start Later in '07-'08: State Legislature Passes New Education Proposal

Posted on: Saturday, 6 May 2006, 15:00 CDT

By S. Brady Calhoun, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

May 6--The 2007-08 school year will start later and high school students will choose a major just like the college kids do.

The Florida Legislature has passed the "A-Plus-Plus" plan, another change in public education that was spearheaded by Gov. Jeb Bush. Bush also was the driving force behind the original A-Plus plan from 1999.

The new law, which should get Bush's signature soon, takes the decision about the start of school out of local hands. The plan states that local school boards cannot begin school sooner than 14 days before Labor Day. The change does not affect the length of summer vacation, just the timing. School began on Aug. 8 in Bay County this year. Superintendent James McCalister said he wished local decisions would be left in local hands.

McCalister took solace in the idea that all school districts will start at the same time and no one will have an advantage over anyone else when Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests are given in the spring.

Tom Ramos, the president of Bay County's teachers union, said the union will work to make sure teachers do not have to wait too long for paychecks.

"Everybody has to pay their bills and it's not like they (teachers) have big bank accounts that they can fall back on," Ramos said. "The business community of Bay County would like to see that the 1,900 teachers of Bay County can pay their bills on time and we fully intend to empower them to do that."

Last year, teachers began working on July 26. They had four days of training and another four days of planning, Ramos said.

Florida legislators said the start date needed to be moved back because it was too hot in early August, because other states have later start dates and because the tourism industry needed workers.

Bill Husfelt, the principal of Mosley High School, said the change was made solely for economic reasons instead of what was best for students.

"I think they're not doing it for a good education reason," Husfelt said. "Do we want the reasons for decisions in education to be based on kids working or on preparing kids for work?"

School Board Chairwoman Thelma Rohan said state leaders need to start listening to the educators instead of the business community.

"The business men can't have it all ways," Rohan said. "If they want good products out of our school system they are going to have to let the educators make the decisions."

Rohan said the board would now have to realign its calendar to make the semester still end before Christmas break.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News Herald, Panama City, Fla.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News Herald

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