Charlotte Public Schools Balanced Calendar

Presentation and Recommendation

By Mark D. Rosekrans

Superintendent

April 18, 2016 - Board of Education Meeting

Timeline

• Started in 2014-15 School Year (October) with Restructuring Teams K-6 and 7-12

• 18 months of review and assessment of the calendar concept (October 2014 - April 2016)

Process

• To seek as much input from everyone

• Internal stakeholders (Board of Education, administrators, teachers, support staff, students and parents)

• External Stakeholders (community members, business owners, other area schools within the ERESA)

• Goal was to gather as much information – good or bad / positive or negative

Presentations

• Board of Education (multiple times)

• ERESA Superintendent meetings (Fall of 2014, throughout 2015 and early 2016)

• ERESA – Holt and Flint schools leadership (Fall 2014)

• Entire CPS staff (start of 15-16 school year at the welcome back meeting)

• Community Forum (December 2015) with K-6 and 7-12 breakout sessions

• Guest Presenter – Dr. Melissa Usiak (December 2015)

• Community Groups (Rotary in January 2016)

• ERESA County Wide Board of Education meeting (February 2016)

Data Gathering

• Pro’s and Con’s / Positives and Negatives• Research considered

• Student achievement, performance, engagement, summer learning loss

• Student and Staff attendance

• Student behaviors

• Many more – Staff PD, Impact on Extra-curriculars, CTE and College Opportunities

• State of Michigan and Mid-West US Schools – direct contact made

• Testimonials from Michigan Schools • Quite overwhelming they would never go back to the traditional calendar

Communication Efforts

• Frequent Press releases to local papers

• CPS website postings (various PowerPoint presentations and information)

• CPS media sites – Facebook and Twitter

• Interviews with local reporters in LSJ

Thoughtful and Deliberate

• Again - 18 months to review and assess

• Value the research• School districts consider this calendar change for a multitude of reasons –

namely student achievement, performance, success and engagement

• Each district’s circumstances are unique and specific to their needs and circumstances

• Charlotte Public School’s needs could be directly related to our:

• Focus Schools (3 schools are working extremely hard to be removed)• Summer learning loss• Free and Reduced student’s achievement and academic success

Voluntary NOT Mandatory

• CPS’s consideration of this calendar concept was voluntary not mandatory

• Consideration was based upon the willingness of the restructuring team to look at our educational programming and delivery of the school year

• Study and assessment was authorized by our Board of Education in 2014

• CPS looked at this through the lens of how this calendar concept could positively impact our students

• A balanced calendar is not legislatively mandated / options exist

Surveys

• Community Survey – has been available since September 2015 on CPS website• 600 responses

• Results are split between the traditional calendar and the balanced calendar concept

• Teacher Survey (one question of support or not)– February 2016• Results are not supportive to consider or implement balanced calendar

concept

• Support Staff Survey (one question of support or not)- February 2016• Results are supportive to shift to balanced calendar concept

Samples of Survey Responses & Data

• Community

• Summer slide – Yes 58% / NO 32% / 10% Unsure

• Positive impact academically – Yes 49% / No 34% / 17% unsure

• Supportive of Balanced Calendar – Yes 50% / No 40% / 10% Unsure

• If CPS considers Balanced Calendar, would my family need to consider other school options – Yes 37% / No 42% / 21 % unsure

• Teachers – Yes 40 / No 73

• Support Staff – Yes 32 / No 23

(Full community survey results will be posted on the CPS website)

Beneficial Work

• I firmly believe the review and assessment of this concept has been beneficial for the school district

• Involvement of our community (Community Forum was very well attended with lots of informational sharing and web survey comments for the district to consider)

• Active legislation right now – HB 5193 and 5194. These bills would make the school calendar and schedule prohibitive subjects of bargaining. Thus, schools may have legislative mandates to do a variety of calendar and schedule considerations

Again ---- Voluntary NOT Mandatory

• CPS’s review and assessment (and that of our county schools) has been voluntary not mandatory

• This is important because it is a very significant change away from the traditional calendar

• Many schools look at this as more aligned for Elementary schools and students vs Secondary schools and students• Our Board of Education indicated early on in the process of review this

calendar concept would be for our entire school district K-12. This decision was specifically due to our school district size (smaller) and not putting families on a split schedule (K-3, 4-6, 7-8 or 9-12)

MDE Contacted

• In contacting the Michigan Department of Education –• 100 schools / districts made requests to deviate from a traditional calendar

in 2015-16

• Leads me to speculate and believe more and more communities are evaluating this concept

• Jackson, Clinton and Ingham counties – varying degrees of interest and movement

• Many requests (applications) to the MDE were related to having an early start to the school year. Specifically, a waiver for pre Labor Day start

• 2015 – 16 school year -- September 8th – June 15th

April 2016 Recommendation

• I committed all along to provide a recommendation in April of 2016

• I also committed all along that if it was determined to implement a balanced calendar it would be done for the 2017-18 school year

• 2016-17 would be used in its entirety to allow everyone (internal and external) to fully plan for the implementation

Balanced Calendar Recommendation

• It is my recommendation that Charlotte Public Schools plan on implementing the Balanced Calendar in 2017-18 and use 2016-17 to prepare.

• I recommend this for several reasons:• County wide Superintendents support for the calendar concept with the other Eaton

County Schools (Grand Ledge, Eaton Rapids, Maple Valley, Potterville and ERESA) with the goal of implementation in 2017-18

• Distributing the school year over 11 months vs 9 months will allow for our students to be involved and associated with the school programming and offerings more frequently. For many of our students (free and reduced populations, homeless, struggling academically, poor attendance, etc.) being in school more consistently will be beneficial in many areas.

Recommendation reasons continued

• MDE is already considering extending the school year. 180 days are mandated for 2016-17. There is discussion to advance to 185 days (we are speculating this will happen in 2017-18) and potentially even approaching 200 school days at some point around year 2020.

• Eaton County Schools submitted a waiver (April 2016) to the State (MDE) to request a pre-Labor day start for the 2016-17 school year.

• The “draft” calendar submitted blends more into August (aligns to fall sports & band), provides for a week long break at Thanksgiving and would resemble a balanced calendar with the addition of an October break and then ending mid to late June

Additional reasons

• Academic “summer slide” or learning loss for low income children. If we truly acknowledge our student and family demographics, our work is to create conditions for increased success. All students, at all levels, should experience engagement benefits from being in school more over the entire calendar year, some include:

• Social and emotional

• Behavioral

• Academic

• Attendance

• Today and in the future, academic expectations are very demanding for students. Even though the amount of instructional days are the same, the rigor expected over 9 months is intense vs. the same rigor over 11 months

Discussion Considerations for the Board of Education

• If you decide to not implement the Balanced Calendar concept in 2017-18 here are reasons not to:• Not mandated

• Mixed survey results from our staff and community

• Improvement, achievement and success efforts with our staff and students are showing positive results and growth. (3 Focus schools are close to being removed from the state list / meeting established performance criteria and our 2015 M-Step scores are solid and improving)

• Building restrictions, specifically areas lacking A/C in the HS, Parkview and Washington

• Potential negative impact on other CPS offerings and services – CPAC, Aquatics, extra-curricular (band, athletics, FFA), athletic camps, etc…

My View…

• The Balanced Calendar should provide many benefits to our students by having them involved and affiliated with the schools throughout the entire calendar year

• Distributing the school year over 11 months vs 9 months makes sense to me as student learning, engagement and academic progress is more fluid and constant

Regardless - I encourage the Board to:

• Keep all of this work on your radar. I firmly believe in the very near future this will be legislatively driven / supported within 1-2 years or less. Prime examples are the recently proposed HB 5193 and HB 5194. If these bills happen or some other proposals, we are right there within the 1-2 years for implementation in 2017-18.

• Continue to submit application to seek a waiver for a pre-Labor day start with ERESA

• Continue to explore grant funding for our students that need remediation, additional support or credit recovery. CPS has already received several grants.

• Continue the summer food service program (possibly the only meals our students get during the summer months).

• As always, continue to strengthen our improvement efforts - especially those with student achievement and teacher effectiveness

Board of Education – Options for Deliberation

• Follow my recommendation (Implement the Balanced Calendar in 2017-18)

OR

• Stay with the traditional calendar (post Labor Day start)

OR

• Stay with the traditional calendar with waiver for the pre Labor Day start