What Should Johnston's 2013-14 School Calendar Look Like?

If all goes as planned, families in the Johnston School District could start planning their summer vacation as early as mid-December.

During Monday's school board meeting, Superintendent Clay Guthmiller gave an update on the 2013-14 school calendar development.

"A lot of pieces have to fall into place," Guthmiller said of the idea to have a calendar option for the board at the Dec. 10 meeting.

Among those pieces are coordinating calendars with other school districts with which Johnston shares programs, such as Central Campus in Des Moines.

The district will also use a committee of teachers and parents to determine the needs for the 2013-14 school calendar.

"What we're interested in is participants that provide input to develop calendars and then evaluate from a parent's perspective," he said. "Then they can be a conduit and liaison between parent groups, PTOs and other organizations with in particular the survey, to help advocate and get the word out."

Guthmiller laid out plans for two possible surveys for parents and teachers in November.

"The committee will develop two calendars, most likely for some choices, develop those two and put them on the website, then have them survey on what choice they felt to be best," Guthmiller said.

Guthmiller stressed that decisions regarding the daily schedules and calendar should be based on district goals and academic merit, not on personal preferences.

A few concerns the committee will look at when it comes to developing the calendar include:

• Concerns about matching calendars with other districts when sharing programs 
• Concerns about consensus of staff and parents on what calendar should look like
• Concerns about the impact on graduate classes for teaching staff
• Concerns about legislative mandates on when school can start 
• Concerns about communicating decision to parents and staff

The committee, which will be co-chaired by Guthmiller and new human resources director Thomas Mitchell, will host an organizational meeting next week, Guthmiller said.

The committee is comprised of parents and teachers identified by building principals.

The district endured months of discussion on the 2012-13 calendar last year, many concerns surrounded an early start date and the benefits or drawbacks of finals before or after winter break.

A start date of Aug. 16 was eventually decided upon, with semester finals being held before winter break.