Gulfport schools considering ‘flexible’ year-round calendar, but leaders want your input
The Gulfport School District is in the process of gauging community interest on whether to go to a flexible academic calendar that would include at least a week of classes each month.
On Tuesday, the school district posted a survey to its website with hope that parents, students, community members and business leaders will give their input on which calendar they prefer — a traditional, flexible or hybrid schedule that includes parts of both options.
Tracy Daniel-Hardy, director of technology for the Gulfport School District, is a member of the strategic planning committee that has been exploring the issue of a year-round academic calendar for the last two years.
There had been 106 respondents to the survey as of about 8 a.m. Wednesday, and Hardy said that about 40% were in favor of the traditional schedule and 60% in support of a new flexible schedule.
“We want to get the parents, community, business members and our stakeholders to give their input,” Daniel-Hardy said. “We also hope to dispel some myths about what year-round school looks like. Hopefully, we’ll gather additional questions and hear any concerns we may not be aware of.”
Each of the three calendars include 180 days of classes — the same amount under the current traditional schedule.
The flexible calendar would start on July 15 and end on June 7, including breaks for students of at least five days in September, October, November, December and January. There is an 11-day holiday during the Christmas break and a 14-day break that lasts from March 16-April 5. The summer break stretches from June 8-July 14.
In the hybrid calendar, the academic calendar would last from Aug. 6 until June 7, giving students more days off during the school year — a 15-day holiday during the spring, a 5-day break in November and a 10-day break during the Christmas holidays.
The strategic planning committee has researched the issue thoroughly, making a trip to Corinth in northern Mississippi to see how the year-round schedule has worked there.
“The main reason we were considering the (flexible) calendar is to reduce summer slide, which includes summer learning loss,” Hardy-Daniel said. “It can also reduce teacher and student burnout.”
The committee recently decided that it would be better to label the new calendar as “flexible” as opposed to year-round.
“We have chosen flexible schedule because it does give us flexibility,” Hardy-Daniel said. “We do know that the year-round terminology has negative connotations. We want to make sure people get the right information and understand how it works. We feel like for branding purposes, the year-round doesn’t help.
“It’s not more than 180 days of classes. It’s spread out over time.”
While members of the committee initially hoped there could be movement on the issue this year, Hardy-Daniel is uncertain on when a flexible schedule could be implemented.
“Based on discussions from the committee and initial input from stakeholders, we were made aware that the July 15 date was a little too early for people to wrap their hands around the issue,” she said. “It may be next year. That’s an option. We’ll look at the input we get from everybody, including the Mississippi Department of Education. We’ll look at if it makes sense to move forward. We’re just not sure yet.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 1:25 PM.
