The Los Angeles Unified School District board has chose to push the start of the school year back by two weeks after complaints were made about classes’ current start in the hot days of mid-August.
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The resolution also states that the district has received complaints from families “unable to travel due to affordability and time-off periods running concurrent with the August start period, or parents opting to travel when they can afford and/or have leave time from work, thus causing children to miss critical start-of-year classroom time”.
The board had been considering a proposal that would have pushed the start of the academic year to after Labor Day. The adjusted school year would end later in June.
The earlier start date, however, has come with a host of complaints, many relating to the hotter August temperatures.
“We liked going on little road trips after the new year when everyone else went back to school”, Wong said. In 2018, the first day of school will be delayed even more.
“I don’t think we’ve seen the evidence that we should roll this back”, Garcia said, citing concerns voiced by the student representative on the board who said it cuts into studying for Advanced Placement and SAT testing.
The number of days of instruction remains at 180. She said the compromise will also require students to attend classes on two days during the week of Thanksgiving instead of having the entire week off. “These three weeks have been incredibly beneficial to me”. Unassigned days, such as for Jewish holidays, will not change.
The resolution, introduced by board members Richard Vladovic, George McKenna and Scott Schmerelson, asks that the school year start no earlier than the day after Labor Day, beginning with the 2017-18 school year.
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LAUSD contends that the change will still allow the fall semester to end before winter break, a primary benefit of the early start.
