by Larry Chowning –
The Middlesex County School Board voted unanimously Monday on the recommendation of Dr. Peter Gretz to start the 2020-21 school year on Monday, August 24, before the Labor Day holiday. A pre-Labor Day calendar had been discussed by the board last spring and a draft presented at the October board meeting.
Traditionally, county schools have started on the Tuesday after Labor Day. The 2019-20 school year started on September 3. This coming year, however, Labor Day falls on September 7 and schools would have started on September 8.
He said starting school after Labor Day could create scheduling problems with Rappahannock Community College’s dual enrollment classes, VHSL athletic scheduling, and coordinating regional programs with the Chesapeake Bay Governor’s School and Bridging Communities programs. He also noted many surrounding schools have already gone to pre-Labor Day startups.
Dr. Gretz also reported a survey was circulated to parents, teachers and school division leaders to find out their positions on when to start school. Several businesses were surveyed and only one had a major concern, he said.
There were 483 responses to the survey with 60% of the parents surveyed wanting a post-Labor Day startup, and 40% wanting a pre-Labor Day startup. Teachers were the exact opposite with 60% wanting a pre-Labor Day start and 40% wanting to start after Labor Day. One hundred percent of school division leaders and most of the students surveyed preferred the pre-Labor Day startup, said Dr. Gretz.
After the vote and during the public comment period, parent Geri Reyes of Urbanna expressed her disappointment in the board’s decision. She said many parents did not receive the survey and others did not receive it in a timely manner.
After the meeting, Dr. Gretz said the survey was distributed to all parent/guardian email addresses on file with the schools.
Reyes said many parents are going to have to go back and reschedule their vacations as they had planned end-of-summer vacations around the Labor Day holiday. “Excuse me, but you have screwed over a lot of parents,” she said.
Reyes noted that the New Kent County School Board gave parents a year’s notice before going to the pre-Labor Day schedule so families who had already planned their vacations did not have to change their plans.
She said if the school board was really concerned about what parents wanted they would have pushed the pre-Labor Day startup to the 2021-22 school year.
Reyes also criticized the board by saying, “Obviously it does not matter what we as parents want. Sixty percent said they wanted a post-Labor Day startup. What we say does not matter!”
The school board did not comment on Reyes’s remarks.
The 2020-21 calendar year will have 176 instructional school days, 1,128 instructional hours and 10 days for winter-break, reported Dr. Gretz.
