MV teachers nix calendar change MV teachers nix calendar change (January 30, 2004)

It may come back for the 2005-2006 year

By Julie O'Shea

The teachers' union of the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District shot down a proposal last week that would have changed the start and end dates of the 2004-2005 school year.

While the faculty at Los Altos High generally seemed in favor of starting the next school year on Aug. 16 and ending on June 3, teachers in Mountain View felt they didn't have enough information to make such a quick decision and overwhelming voted against the proposal.

In keeping with the district's mutual agreement with the teachers' association, Superintendent Rich Fischer said he won't ask the school board to vote on the matter.

However, the issue isn't necessarily dead. Mountain View High Principal Pat Hyland said her teachers probably wouldn't oppose discussing such a calendar change for a later school year.

Hyland noted that faculty at the Truman Avenue campus felt like they had been left out of the proposed calendar change discussion, which had been initiated by students at Los Altos High School.

Teens at Los Altos started rallying for a calendar change last spring. They argued that by starting classes a week or so earlier, first semester would end before the winter break, thus giving students a chance to unwind during the holiday season rather than worry about final exams.

Fischer agreed in September to let the high school end its first semester before last month's winter break as sort of a test run for a possible permanent calendar change.

"I'm bummed," said Los Altos junior Sam Elchert, of the decision to go back to the old calendar next year. The new calendar is working well this year, he added.

Both student and faculty surveys gave the decision glowing reviews and a permanent change was slated to go before the school board this week for a vote, when Fischer abruptly pulled it from the agenda after heated opposition from many in the teachers' union.

"From a parent's prospective, I was really disappointed," said Dee Gibson, president of the Parent-Teacher-Student Association at Los Altos. "I think once they (Mountain View High teachers) are brought into the discussion loop, they will like the idea."

Bill Smith, a U.S. history and psychology teacher at Los Altos, agreed. "It caught Mountain View by surprise," he said. "It upset them ... they felt left out."

Smith said he is in favor of ending first semester before the winter break but that he would be surprised if district administrators allowed the two high schools to work off of different schedules next year.

Smith added that both schools' faculty will be sitting down in the coming weeks to discuss a possible calendar change that could be implemented as early as the 2005-2006 school year.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

E-mail a friend a link to this story.