Beaufort County school board approves not one, but two school calendars for 2020-21
The Beaufort County School District’s school board didn’t approve just one calendar for the next school year Tuesday — it approved two.
One looks mostly like last year’s, with an Aug. 17 start date. It’s what the district will use unless it can get a waiver from the state to use the second calendar, which sets the start date a week earlier than usual on Aug. 10.
Neither calendar uses Veteran’s Day as a weather make-up day, which drew ire last year in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.
Both calendars end the fall semester at the start of winter break, which board academic committee member Cathy Robine said “takes into consideration kids taking advantage of dual enrollment or graduating early.”
District chief instructional services officer Mary Stratos said Wednesday students have better GPAs when the semester ends at winter break, based on years of district data.
Both calendars have slightly unbalanced semesters, with 85 instructional days in the fall and 95 in the spring. Some teachers have complained about the uneven split, saying it’s difficult to cover their whole curriculum with fewer days.
But under South Carolina law, which mandates that schools must start in the third week of August, it’s difficult to balance semesters and end fall classes before winter break.
“There was a lot of effort and conversation that went into this,” Robine said. “It was, ‘What did we learn from last time?’”
The school board approved the calendars in an 8-2-1 vote, with JoAnn Orischak and Richard Geier voting no and William Smith abstaining.
Accounting for hurricanes
The Aug. 10 calendar doesn’t change the semester split. But it does “front-load” weather make-up days into the fall semester to account for the possibility of hurricanes, district spokesman Jim Foster said.
In the past four years, Beaufort County has lost 22 school days due to six hurricanes and tropical storms, which is more than the three weather makeup days the state requires districts to build into their calendars each year.
That time was all lost from the fall semester, and in some cases made up in the spring, when high school students are normally enrolled in a different set of courses.
The Aug. 10 calendar includes a full week off for Thanksgiving break, with the option to use Nov. 23 and 24 — that Monday and Tuesday — as weather make-up days, in addition to Dec. 21.
The Aug. 17 calendar lists Oct. 14, Nov. 25 — the Wednesday before Thanksgiving — and Jan. 4 as weather make-up days.
In order to use the Aug. 10 calendar, the district has to have its strategic plan for the 2020-21 school year approved by the South Carolina Department of Education. The district can then ask the S.C. Board of Education for an “innovation waiver” that lets it start school before the rest of the state.
The board approved the district’s strategic plan unanimously at their Tuesday meeting, which means it can be sent to the Department of Education for approval.
“If the strategic plan gets approved, we have everything in place to apply for that waiver,” Robine said, adding that she’s “hopeful” the state board would approve it.