Wyckoff School Board Weighing Calendar Options

The is asking parents and teachers to share input for next year's school calendar, which board President Rob Francin said will be harder to schedule than usual because of the awkward placement of holidays and elections.

"We have very few available days to have school" compared to other years, Francin said. "That's a difficult problem we're trying to deal with."

The issue is further complicated by the shared high schools with Franklin Lakes and Oakland. If the school breaks are not at the same time, families with children in both the K-8 schools and the high schools will have trouble scheduling vacations, about which some parents had already given input, Francin said. Several parents at the school board meeting Monday night also expressed concern about the calendar.

At Monday's meeting, Francin outlined three potential calendars:

1. Have regular school breaks, but classes go until June 27.

2. Cut the April break down to a week and replace the week off in February with a long weekend. Classes would last until June 25.

3. Eliminate the breaks in February and April and have a week off in March.

Francin said that the board may form an ad hoc committee with members of the Wyckoff Education Association, PTOs and other FLOW area school districts to go over the calendar, so the final result may not exactly follow and of the three calendars he suggested.

"If we do this right and get a groundswell of support, other FLOW districts might follow," Francin said.

The board will continue discussing the 2012-13 calendar at their next meeting on February 13.