Next year’s school calendar set
Harvard’s 2007–2008 school year will start early, with the first day back for students August 29, the Wednesday before Labor Day, according to the calendar Superintendent Tom Jefferson presented to the school board. The last day of classes is tentatively set for June 17, 2008, but will depend on the number of snow days needed. Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for November 19 and 20, the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
The elementary school will have more early-release days this coming school year, matching the number at Bromfield, Jefferson said. During the current school year, elementary school students were let out early on 16 days, while Bromfield had 24 early-release days. Next year, however, both schools will follow the same schedule, with 20 such days. On early-release days, Bromfield students will be dismissed at 12:05 p.m. and elementary school pupils will be dismissed at 1:13 p.m.
The schools use the half-days to give staff an opportunity to attend teacher training sessions or joint planning meetings. Jefferson said he was not sure why the elementary school has traditionally had fewer such days, but that those teachers needed more time for training and planning meetings. School Committee Chairwoman Willie Wickman asked Jefferson if the teachers’ union had approved the change; he replied that union representative Kathleen Doherty had given her approval.
Students sign up for virtual high school
Bromfield students have signed up for a wide variety of courses through the virtual high school program, according to Superintendent Tom Jefferson. The $16,000 to pay for Bromfield students to take classes online through the program was added to the 2007–2008 school budget after voters approved the second, higher Proposition 2½ override in April. Jefferson said 16 or 17 students would be able to take such courses each semester. For the upcoming school year, Bromfield students have signed up for such courses as engineering principles, astronomy, Chinese, zoology, advanced placement (AP) economics, AP government, and AP U.S. history.
Executive session
At the end of its open meeting, the school board voted to meet in executive session to discuss contract negotiations. As of last week, a copy of the recently settled teachers’ contract was not available to the public because the lawyers for the two sides were still going over the wording of the document, according to Bonnie Shields, who is Superintendent Tom Jefferson’s assistant.
