The majority of school districts in the region continue the tradition of a school break week in February and April, but a discussion on January 9 showed Marion School Committee support for a study on the possibility of attempting a two-weeklong March break.
Sippican School Principal Lyn Rivet said the Sippican School Council discussed combining the February and April breaks into one, given this region’s propensity for multiple snow storms and blizzards late January through early March, resulting in multiple snow days and an interruption of full school weeks.
School Committee member Michelle Smith pointed out that having the two breaks is a strong tradition in this area and that unless other area school districts adopted the March break, certain areas such as the sports calendars, for example, would be affected.
“It would be different from everybody else, said Smith.
“The only way that’s going work – on a high school level – is if everybody else … is on a similar schedule,” said School Committee Chairman Christine Marcolini. “It’s an interesting concept, but I don’t think we would be able to do that in isolation.”
“I think parents would be in an uproar; the union would be in an uproar,” Smith said.
Superintendent Doug White suggested that the Tri-Town school districts would undertake a yearlong study first to review and allow a voice to be heard from all parties. White said he would gather available information from other school districts to ascertain “how it would look and feel in the Tri-Town and where the support would come for that.”
In other matters relative to the school calendar, the committee reviewed the proposed draft for the 2019-2020 school year, with White presenting a suggestion from the Rochester School Committee on rescheduling professional development days from later in the school year, instead holding them on January 3 and 4 to allow for two full weeks of winter break rather than having students return for only a short week on Thursday and Friday.
“It looks good on paper, unless you’re a working parent,” said Marcolini. “That’s really long. … It’s an interesting idea.”
Marcolini said, after returning back from this winter break to a shorter three-day week, “It was kind of nice to come back to a short week.” Still, Marcolini said it was a worthwhile idea that should be presented to the meeting of the joint school committees on March 7.
Also during the meeting, Marcolini said the Marion School Budget Subcommittee recently met and reviewed a draft 2020 fiscal year budget and would have one to present to the Marion School Committee at its next meeting.
The committee welcomed new Business Administrator Paul Kitchen to his first School Committee meeting since beginning the position on January 7.
The next meeting of the Marion School Committee is scheduled for February 13 at 6:30 pm at Sippican School.
Marion School Committee
By Jean Perry