• About
    • About Us
    • What We Cover
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Our Advertisers
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Send News
  • Subscribe

Oak Ridge Today

  • Home
  • Sign in
  • News
    • Business
    • Community
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Police and Fire
    • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Weather
  • Sports
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Recreation
    • Rowing
    • Youth
  • Entertainment
    • Arts
    • Dancing
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Premium Content
  • Obituaries
  • Classifieds

 

School board approves balanced calendar

Posted at 8:38 pm April 28, 2014
By Sara Wise 2 Comments

Oak Ridge Board of Education

The Oak Ridge Board of Education and school administrators are pictured above during a recent meeting.

Note: This story was last updated at 11:30 p.m.

The Oak Ridge Board of Education on Monday approved a new balanced calendar for the 2015-2016 school year. The balanced calendar, which is different than the traditional school calendar, gives students about nine weeks of classroom instruction at a time. This will be the first time that Oak Ridge has had a balanced calendar.

The school board approved the change in a 4-1 vote on Monday. Board member Jenny Richter was opposed.

A separate motion to outsource substitute teachers died with little discussion.

The vote on the balanced calendar came after input from three community members who were opposed to the change from the traditional calendar, which is now being used at most Oak Ridge schools. The board discussed the calendars for nearly an hour before the vote.

Board member Dan DiGregorio reminded peers that “things are just different” now, with more pressure and higher expectations for students than “back in our day.” He suggested that the breaks allowed by the balanced calendar would prevent students from “burnout” by the end of the school year in May.

Board chairman Keys Fillauer agreed with DiGregorio by mentioning that “education has become full time” for today’s students.

The balanced calendar will allow “intersessions” during the three two-week breaks in the school year. These intersessions will replace summer school, and the number of students permitted to attend will depend on the number of teachers willing to work. The calendar dismisses students in early June for a seven- to eight-week summer break.

Assistant Superintendent Chris Marczak said that he has worked two intersession and two summer schools, and he prefers the intersessions.

The first member of the community to speak, Joe Stevens, was concerned about the impact of the balanced calendar on the local community and outside activities.

“Children need to be outside in the summer,” he said. “Not everything is learned inside the classroom.”

While the board did not directly respond to Stevens’ concerns, they did agree that school sports would not be affected by the change from the traditional calendar. For comparison, it was mentioned that school sports in Maryville and Alcoa have not been affected by their balanced calendars.

The other community members who spoke on the issue were parents. They expressed concerns about the ability of parents to care for their children throughout the breaks that the balanced calendar would bring. They were also skeptical about the accuracy of the two surveys that were conducted.

Marczak agreed that the change will have an impact on the community, but he said that the new calendar could save the district up to $125,000, especially by reducing transportation costs.

All of Oak Ridge Schools will adopt the new calendar during the 2015-16 academic year.

The balanced calendar was endorsed by a majority of Oak Ridge parents and school staff in two separate telephone surveys in February and March.

Sara Wise is a freelance contributor to Oak Ridge Today.

See the balanced calendar here: 2015-2016 Balanced Calendar

See the traditional calendar here: 2015-2016 Traditional Calendar

Filed Under: Education, Education, K-12, Slider, Top Stories Tagged With: balanced calendar, Chris Marczak, Dan DiGregorio, Jenny Richter, Joe Stevens, Keys Fillauer, Oak Ridge Board of Education, Oak Ridge Schools, Sara Wise, school board, substitute teachers, traditional calendar

Advertisements

 


Join the club!

If you appreciate our work, please consider subscribing. Besides helping us, your subscription will give you access to our premium content.

Some of our stories are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our members—advertisers, subscribers, and sponsors.

But some are premium content, available only to members. Those are in-depth, investigative, or exclusive stories that are available only on Oak Ridge Today. They generally require significant time to report, write, and publish.

You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month.

You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers, and they include benefits.

Basic

  • Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
  • Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

  • Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
  • Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

  • Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

If you prefer to send a check for a subscription or donation, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

Commenting Guidelines

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.

Comments

  1. David Allred says

    May 4, 2014 at 12:13 am

    “Children need to be outside in the summer,” he said. “Not everything is learned inside the classroom.”

    There’s absolutely nothing else to be said on this matter. Case closed and kudos to Mr. Stevens.

    Reply
  2. David Allred says

    May 4, 2014 at 12:34 am

    Edited to add:

    During the Zombie Apocalypse we will need 10 naturally intelligent citizens for every 1 citizen in a laboratory solving puzzles with amazing TCAP scores. Natural intelligence isn’t an A, B, or C answer. And it is never on paper. It’s “chicken-sexing” and things like that. If you don’t know what “chicken-sexing” is and you’ve never connected that skill to the human brain’s neurological development then you failed one of a million tests that really make a difference… which by the way, in case you missed it above — these are never tested on paper.

    Keep your eyes on the survival of the species people, it matters.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More Education News

Covenant Health donating land for Roane State health science center

Covenant Health is donating about 10 acres of land for Roane State Community College's new $75 million regional health science training center in west Knox County. The Knox Regional Health Science and Simulation … [Read More...]

School board approves aviation career path

The Oak Ridge school board on Monday unanimously approved an aviation career pathway that could eventually allow students to get a private pilot's license. The board also approved a contract extension for Superintendent … [Read More...]

Extreme Classroom Makeover applications due Jan. 31

The deadline to submit a video application is about one week away in a contest that awards $25,000 to improve STEM education in public schools in the region. ORAU's Extreme Classroom Makeover is open to third-grade to … [Read More...]

ORCSGirls resumes in-person classes in Oak Ridge, Maryville

Oak Ridge Computer Science Girls (ORCSGirls) is resuming their free in-person coding classes for girls in grades 5-10, a press release said. In March 2020, all classes were switched to be virtual events in response to … [Read More...]

Roane to Tech paves path for transfer students

A relatively new program called Roane to Tech allows students to transfer from Roane State Community College to Tennessee Tech University to complete their last two years of college, and it provides students additional … [Read More...]

More Education

Recent Posts

  • Y-12 celebrates new fire station, emergency operations center
  • One person seriously injured in Wednesday crash
  • Oak Ridge EM prepared for cold weather to prevent failures
  • Covenant Health donating land for Roane State health science center
  • School board approves aviation career path
  • Wildcats name new football coach
  • Free dental, vision, medical services in February
  • Junior Playhouse performs ‘Gingerbread: Hansel & Gretel’ in February
  • Extreme Classroom Makeover applications due Jan. 31
  • Obituaries: Jan. 20-Jan. 22, 2023

Search Oak Ridge Today

About Us

About Oak Ridge Today
What We Cover

How To

Advertise
Subscribe

Contact Us

Contact Oak Ridge Today

Copyright © 2023 Oak Ridge Today