School Calendar – Each year at this time, we begin to looking at the school calendar for the coming school year. It’s a complicated process with many obstacles. Here are the items to consider in building a school calendar: 1. School cannot start before the 4th Monday of August (earliest start date would be 8/22/11). 2. Number of Days to schedule – Options - Option 1 - 180 days Calendar if campus is seeking Optional Flexible School Year Program; Option 2 - 177-178 Day Calendar if District is not going OFYP and seeking Professional Development Waiver Days; or Option 3 - 180 maximum without Professional Development. We must schedule 180 school/student days on the calendar if we participate in the Optional Flexible Year Program. Under the OFYP teachers work the traditional 187 days. The OFYP days can be placed on any day except assessment days. Also, the 10 days offered in the OFYP do not all have to be used. We may use up to 10 days for student OFYP days. If you are opposed to the Optional Flexible Year Program, you will want to schedule the 177 or 178 school days which is a Staff Development Focus Calendar and plan for 10 staff days plus 177 or 178 student days. We do not have to ask for professional development days; if we do not seek the OFYP or professional waiver days, we will have 180 student instructional days. Assessment days are days that we must be in school. We always want to be in school the Friday before testing the next week. Teachers can be given 3 work days each year without students. Two "bad weather" days must be placed on the calendar. Early Release – we can apply for up to 6 early release days. This year the placement of Spring Break is very important. Some schools in the state are opting to have long weekends in lieu of a spring break. The reason for this is the dates of state assessment. The only time for a full week of spring break is March 12 -16. It is our option not to have spring break, but to have off multiple days at the end or beginning of the week. The San Saba County Stock show is traditionally observed with an early release on Thursday and Friday Holiday the 3rd Thursday/Friday in January 1/19 & 1/20. 3. Traditionally, San Saba ISD ends school in May, but we can go into June. These are all very important issues that we consider in making a school calendar. Other items we consider are state and federal holidays when parents could possibly be off of work. The school calendar will be reviewed on first reading at the April 11, 2011 school board meeting. Next week calendar options will be available on the web site for viewing. I want to thank all the parents, students and staff for a GREAT day of instruction this past Saturday. Experiments, field trips, individual tutoring hamburger and hot dog cookouts! It was truly a great day. Please recall that we begin our extended days this week to make up missed instruction time. School will release at 4:15 pm. Please visit www.san-saba.net to view events and find information you need to know about SSISD. As well, don’t forget to sign up for the "alerts" available from the website, and don’t miss the opportunity to sign up for the Parent Portal giving parents access to grades and attendance. Parents, let us know how we can help you the first day of school all the way until the last day of school!! If you have any question about this article or any other question about school happenings please contact me at 325/372-3144 or email me at lglaze@san-saba.net . We are San Saba! We are together!