Beginning next school year, San Benito High School students will
have a more relaxing winter break.
Beginning next school year, San Benito High School students will have a more relaxing winter break.
The SBHS District Board of Trustees approved a 2003-04 school calendar that would make the first semester of school more than 20 days shorter than the spring semester. This school year, the first semester was four days shorter than the second.
A survey distributed to students and staff in April by district Superintendent Jean Burns Slater asked for input. Both groups overwhelmingly supported ending the first semester in December – of 108 staff votes, 67.6 percent favored the change and of 914 students, 75 percent also favored the switch.
Trustee Steve Hailstone was not surprised by the positive response.
“The kids are fresh, the teachers are fresh the first semester of school,” he said. “You accomplish more the first semester than the second semester even though they are the equal amount of time.”
The new schedule would have the first semester end in December instead of the second or third week of January.
Clete Bradford, California Teachers Association president at SBHS, said teachers favor ending the first semester early as well as starting the school a week early. But, because teachers spend part of the first semester re-teaching students and going over old material, not all teachers accomplish more that semester, he said.
An important issue to keep in mind was making sure the revised calendar did not deviate from the Hollister School District’s calendar, since both districts have siblings attending their schools. If a school in the HSD had a day off but SBHS did not, the SBHS student might miss school and lower daily attendance money SBHS receives, Slater said.
Benefits to ending the first semester in December include a study-free winter break for students, beginning the new year fresh with a new semester and students traveling during winter break, especially those who visit their native countries, wouldn’t miss finals, which are usually a week or two after students return in January.
“It’s a fact that some of our students go back to their native countries over winter break,” Slater said. “We thought it’s better for everyone to have a completion point.”
Also, having a longer second semester can serve as a benefit because of state and federal testing in the spring. The state’s Standardized Testing and Reporting, Golden State Exams and California High School Exit Exam and federal tests like the Advanced Placement Exams take up one to two weeks of class time in the spring which would help even out the difference in days between the semesters, Slater said.
Drawbacks include less study time for students during winter break, grades would be due the first week in January meaning teachers might have to work on grades over winter break, a shorter semester may affect preparations for finals, a shorter semester would impact classes that are semester only, not year-round, and seniors could be impacted because November and December are busy times with college entrance exams and college applications due.
“Year-long courses – teachers will have to readjust their curriculum. The semesters won’t be exactly split,” Slater said.
Although this may take some work on the part of the teachers, Slater said teachers were the ones who brought the topic to her attention. Slater met with teachers in December, before she began as superintendent, and teachers requested that she look into ending the first semester in December.
Despite the extra work to readjust the curriculum, teachers support the calendar change.
“All of us will have to make some adjustments,” Bradford said.
Slater said she worries about grades being due after winter break, which may encroach upon teacher-breaks and the less time students will have to catch up since some use winter break to get ahead in their classes.
“It’ll be a fast-paced first semester,” she said.
There is a way to even out the semesters and still end the first semester in December. The school year would have to start a week or two earlier in August and end earlier in June. This would cut into summer vacations and summer school programs, Hailstone said, adding he did not support starting the school year early because it would put SBHS’s calendar and HSD’s calendar out of alignment.
