Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home School Board Monday approved the calendar for the 2018-19 school year.
The calendar addressed some complaints from teachers and parents while failing to address all of them.
On Monday evening, March 12, during the board’s regular meeting, Jason Van Eck voted against the calendar based on issues with the winter break schedule.
Voting to approve the calendar were Jim Gourley, Ben Emmert, Chanz Keeney, Jason Redick, Chairman Mike Reynolds, Angela Clegg, Carol Babcock and Debra Brown.
Director of Teaching and Learning Rachel Stucky submitted the calendar proposal to the board.
The calendar committee did a thorough job trying to determine what people wanted, Stucky said. The committee looked at the first and last days of school and when to schedule winter break, the ends of trimesters, grading days and conference days.
Next year, school will begin on Sept. 4, the day after Labor Day. It will end on June 13, with High School graduation on June 7.
Winter break begins Dec. 24, the Monday before Christmas. Students return to school on Monday, Jan. 7.
Spring break will run from March 25-29.
Elementary schools will have conferences Oct. 17-19 and Feb. 6-8. High School and Junior High conferences are Oct. 18-19, Feb. 7-8 and April 25-26.
Van Eck said he heard many complaints about how this year’s Christmas break impacted families that share custody of children.
He referred to Linn County’s Model Parenting Plan, which gives one parent custody from the first day after school ends until the day after Christmas. The other parent maintains custody of the children through the end of the break.
Under this year’s schedule, counting weekends, that meant one parent had custody of a child for three full days during winter break while the second parent had nearly two weeks custody.
Next year’s schedule doesn’t change that much, allowing one parent custody for four full days, while the second parent will have custody for the remainder of the break.
Clegg said she heard from a lot of teachers who have spouses in other districts and were on different schedules for winter break this year.
The committee looked at other districts’ schedules, noting that Sweet Home was not only out of sync with other districts but also the Linn-Benton-Lincoln Education Service District, Stucky said. The calendar she submitted for next year is in sync with Lebanon, Albany and the ESD.
Early Kindergarten
The board completed the second reading Monday of a policy to create early kindergarten and will decide whether to approve it next month.
Under state law and current district policy, only students who reach the age of 5 by Sept. 1 may enroll in kindergarten, Stucky said. The new policy would allow younger children to enroll if the student’s needs would be best met in a school program based on analysis by qualified professional staff of the child’s cognitive, social and physical development.
It’s something that is difficult to prove, and it’s rare for children to start early, Stucky said. “Our goal is to set up students for success.”
If a student is deemed ready, then officials want them to start school, she said.
Stucky said she looked at 17 districts and their policies on early kindergarten. Three, including Sweet Home, did not have an early kindergarten program.
About a third had a second cut-off date, Stucky said. Of those Albany has the latest, requiring a student to be 5 by Nov. 30.
She said that research shows that starting a child too early has no immediate impact, but over time, the student may not be able to “move forward very rigorously.”
She said that point remains debatable.
Board members expressed concerns that parents might want to enroll children who weren’t ready yet.
Babcock mused that a 3-year-old might be enrolled if the child met the requirements. The child might have the intellectual capacity but may still face social issues and size could be a factor.
“I’d rather see a secondary cutoff date rather than have a very young child enter,” she said.
Redick noted that one child might be born the day before the cutoff while another is born just a day after the cutoff.
“I think the date is arbitrary,” he said. “But at some point, we could have some common sense with that arbitrary date.”
Supt. Tom Yahraes said he and Stucky would return to the board with a proposal for a secondary cutoff date at the board’s next regular board meeting, April 9.
Hawthorne and
Junior High projects
Maintenance Supervisor Josh Darwood presented conceptual drawings for the planned Hawthorne Elementary School seismic upgrades and bond project to reconfigure the entrance and office area.
The seismic upgrades, funded by a $1.5 million grant from the state, will remove the existing windows and replace them with shear walls and new windows, while the bond project will create a locking vestibule and office and rearrange the office area.
Under the plan, the new front door could be locked in a lockout situation, Darwood said. Immediately inside the main entrance will be a reception window to the right. Just beyond that is the door to the office, which will be locked. A new set of doors blocks the way past that. The doors can be unlocked by office staff.
Inside the office door is the reception area to the right and office space to the left. The principal’s office will move to the front of the building, to the west of the reception area. A health room is planned to the immediate south. To the south of that room will be a small conference room.
The entry will have an arch, thematically similar to the High School, built with bare wood columns and beams similar to the planned theme at Sweet Home Junior High.
The seismic project will be completed under a construction manager-general contractor process instead of a standard bid process, the same process used to complete the High School Auditorium project last year.
In the CM/GC process, a contractor is involved in and provides input during the design process.
Darwood and his crew will remodel the entrance and office area.
Darwood said that contractors are all busy and projects are getting few bids, as few as one or none at all.
“Bids aren’t competitive any more,” Darwood said. “They just don’t care if they get the job.”
As a result, he said, he is leaning toward recommending the CM/GC process for the Junior High remodel, which is in the design phase. He anticipates that will be more likely to draw a response from a contractor.
Among advantages, it would prevent delays rebidding the project if initial bids come in too high, Darwood said. With the contractor involved in the design process, it also cuts down on the number of change orders later in the construction process, although it comes with more up-front fees.
The board must approve a resolution to move forward with the CM/GC process following a notification period and a public hearing, which will be held during the board’s April 9 meeting.