Christopher J. Marczak
By Chris Marczak
The voting results for the 2015-16 school calendar year in Oak Ridge have been counted.
Parents and staff members were called Monday, Feb. 10, and asked if they preferred a balanced calendar or a traditional calendar for all schools, including Willow Brook and the PreSchool, for the 2015-16 school year.
The traditional calendar is the calendar that most of the Oak Ridge Schools have had for quite a while. Students come to school in the middle of August, have a one-week fall break, two weeks off for winter, a one-week spring break, dismissal at the beginning of June, and an eleven- to twelve-week summer.
The balanced calendar is a new calendar that Oak Ridge has never had before. It is called a balanced calendar due to the balance that it gives for instructional time in the classroom—about nine weeks at a time. Students typically arrive for school the first week in August, have a two-week fall break, two weeks off for winter, two weeks off for spring break, dismissal at the beginning of June, and a seven- to eight-week summer. The balanced calendar is not like the Willow Brook Elementary or PreSchool calendar where students start school in mid-July and have three-week breaks.
The calendar phone vote went to both English and Spanish speaking families at 6 p.m. on Monday. Only one phone per house was called in the Skylert callout system.
A total of 3,346 homes were called where English is the primary language. Fifty-eight percent of the families (1,947 families) voted. Of those who voted, 56.2 percent (1,094 families) chose the balanced calendar, and 43.8 percent (853 families) chose the traditional calendar. There was no response in 1,399 homes.
A total of 149 homes were called where Spanish is the primary language. Fifty-seven percent of the families (86 families) voted. Of those who voted, 50 percent (43 families) chose the balanced calendar, and 50 percent (43 families) chose the traditional calendar. There was no response in 63 homes.
The calendar phone vote went to all employed staff members of the Oak Ridge School system at 7 p.m. Monday. Only one phone vote per house was called in the Skylert callout system. However, if a staff member was also a parent, they got one vote at 6 p.m. as a parent and one vote as a staff member at 7 p.m. The results were kept separated in the report; no votes were removed.
A total of 855 staff homes were called. Sixty-six percent of the staff (571 staff members) voted. Of those members, 69.2 percent (395 staff members) chose the balanced calendar, and 30.8 percent (176 staff members) chose the traditional calendar. There was no response in 284 homes.
This information will be presented to the Oak Ridge Board of Education at the regular monthly meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 24.
Most importantly, thank you to all families and Oak Ridge staff who participated in the voting on either the balanced or traditional calendars starting for the 2015-16 school year!
Chris Marczak is assistant superintendent of Oak Ridge Schools.
See the voting results here: Results of the 2015-2016 Calendar Vote Callout.
Dave Smith says
The Maryville and Alcoa school systems operate on a “balanced” calendar. The Nashville school system has a balanced calendar. Franklin has a balanced calendar. Bristol was considering a balanced calendar (but I don’t know if they are still considering it). The Atlanta school system has a balanced calendar. The state of Hawaii has a balanced calendar for all its public schools. These are but a few notable examples of the many school systems that have moved to a balanced calendar.
I’m mildly encouraged by the results of the poll. If the BOE adopts the balanced calendar (and I hope they do), I think within a few years time it will be difficult to imagine returning to a traditional (agrarian) school calendar.
Linda Wells Mabry says
I wonder what the results would have been if a switch was not made between the form that went home twice and the confusing phone call that just ended leaving parents wondering if their vote was even acknowledged ? The form listed traditional as #1 and balanced as #2 the phone vote was just opposite. My daughter made me aware of this PRIOR to the call at 6:00pm. The teachers at ORHS told the students about it. Hmmmm when did they preview the call? I smell a RAT!
Cindy McCullough says
Hmm, interesting. I noticed the change in the order and my son at ORHS had not informed us ahead, but we voted the one in which we meant to vote. The sudden hangup or whatever at the end, did make us wonder if our vote counted. We thought maybe it was our phone, as one handset isn’t working too well. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
David Allred says
The form sent home to families was in fact highly deceptive. Either that or a major lapse in logic. I had to read it twice because Choice A on the form was #2 on the phone poll, and Choice B on the form was #1 on the phone poll. In what world does this make sense? Is the balanced calendar going to teach our children to think sequentially? I wonder.
Secondly, the time of the phone call was 6:03. That’s a time when working families either A) are not home to participate, or B) probably have just gotten home and are busy with dinner. Working families will be effected more by a calendar change in that childcare is much more difficult to obtain in the Fall and Spring when college sitters are away.
Third, as someone else said, many of us were left wondering if our vote even was received. It didn’t feel all that clear that ours was because my son picked up the phone about the time buttons were pushed and the flat silence that followed felt disconcerting.
I suppose I personally don’t care one way or the other — outside of the fact that parents were misled by the system’s letter to parents, which strikes me as either one of the biggest oversights in the history of sequential thought, or very manipulative. Neither bodes well for a system intent on injecting the addictive drug of big data straight into this community’s veins.
Dave Smith says
Given that the poll was presented in a highly deceptive manner and some families/staff were not home or too busy to answer the phone or their children answered the question in their stead, which direction do you think the results might have erred in gauging opinion on the calendar? Was it the folks for the traditional calendar or the folks for the balanced calendar that answered opposite their true opinion? Or were those of each opinion equally baffled?
I say let’s do the poll again, this time in three rounds. First, let’s have a practice poll for everyone on the list. Second, re-poll those who answered the poll on Feb. 10. Finally, poll the remainder of those on the list. Then we can evaluate the fidelity of the Feb. 10 results in comparison with the second-round re-poll, and we will have rigorous new results from a fully poll-taking-trained parent and teacher sample population.
Wait, here’s a better idea. Let’s open up the polling procedure to the community for input before taking another poll. Maybe have a referendum on whether a poll should be taken at all. Decide on whether the poll results will be binding or non-binding. Consider the possible disruption by the school calendar on activation of the speed camera zone in front of the high school. Debate whose goatee is more attractive, Dr. Borcher’s or Dr. Marczak’s. Honestly, I think the BOE deserves nothing less than to be presented with unequivocal results from a school calendar poll. We have until 2015-2016 to get it right.
David Allred says
Well, despite preferring the traditional calendar, it doesn’t matter to me whichever way it goes. Our family will be fine. I am, however, a firm believer in both clarity and transparency.
So while we’re busy establishing clarity and transparency about a school calendar, I think the public would be better served by a discussion on whether what is good for test scores is ultimately what is good for children… that’s really the right question to ask in my opinion.
“Far better is an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.” ~ John Tukey
Dave Smith says
David, it’s not possible to say that you prefer one calendar over the other yet at the same time say it doesn’t matter to you which calendar is selected. Those are mutually exclusive opinions. Did you mean that you prefer one calendar but you don’t think it matters which calendar is selected?
The school system made a decision several years ago to select a single calendar for all the schools. For various reasons the year-round calendar is not under consideration. The options that are being considered are not really all that different. In one the summer break is shorter by two weeks, and the fall and spring breaks are each longer by one week. The traditional calendar is practically as old as public education and is as comfortable as a pair of old shoes. The balanced calendar might have some benefits. It’s not like the school system is proposing a radically new concept, like decreasing the number of instructional days or mandating that all classes be taught in Esperanto.
What is the right question to ask before trying on a pair of new shoes?
David Allred says
Well, it’s totally possible David. When my wife says she can make chili or tacos and I say I like chili best, but that I would be fine with either then I quite mean what I say to her. For many of us, life does not exist as a perpetual dichotomy of either / or.
I agree the options aren’t all that different. Just like when I sit down to a plate of calories, they aren’t that much different to me. I’m out for the protein and vitamins, everything else is secondary to me, not to mention the fact she labored over it is quite enough for me to be satiated, albeit of a different type.
As to your final question, it’s really quite simple. While a shoe size might be the appropriate question to ask (aka – a measurement), it really doesn’t fly if you’re out in this morning’s snow with a size 10 sandal (aka – utility).
There’s always a bigger question than a simple measurement, my friend.
Andrew Howe says
Sounds like there’s some glitches in the procedures surround the automated phone polls, but that’s to be expected – human beings being non-perfect sometimes do error. Good feedback though, and I don’t doubt those problems will be taken into account for future phone polls.
I just want to say thank you to Borchers and Marczak and the BOE for spearheading a poll at all. In today’s high-tech world, there really isn’t any reason for not knowing the opinions of the public (errors in protocol aside).
I attended the meeting when this phone call was announced and discussed and could tell that the Super and Vice truly wanted to know our opinion before moving forward. They both appear to be extremely exceptional men, genuine, open, honest and sincere. Kudos to them AND their goatees!
Andrew Howe says
Assistant Super, not Vice. My bad.
Lawrence Joseph moore says
We missed the call. Late at work that day
Lawrence Joseph moore says
I do prefer the traditional schedule. But it really doesn’t matter