Peach school board approves return to five-day school week

FORT VALLEY -- Peach County public schools will return to a five-day school week, per the school board’s approval Tuesday of a 2012-13 school calendar.

The calendar passed 3-1, with board Vice-chairman Ben McDaniel voting against the plan. Chairman Jamie Johnson was unable to attend the meeting, but sent a letter voicing his support of going back to a traditional five-day week. Board members Donald Williams, Robert Hammack and Virginia Dixon voted in favor of the calendar.

McDaniel said his only concern was the district being able to come up with the money to afford returning to a five-day week.

“My only concern with going back to the five-day right now is basically financial,” McDaniel said, adding that some parents and community members supported keeping the four-day week, while others wanted to go back to five. “I’m sure it’ll probably be taken care of, it’ll probably work itself out, but I’m a little nervous myself about covering everything.”

Peach County schools have operated on a four-day school week since 2009, when school officials made the switch in hopes of saving money.

Dixon later added that the decision to go back to a conventional calendar wouldn’t make much difference in the district’s financial concerns.

“If we stayed on four days, we still would have had a financial issue that we might want to be concerned about,” she said during board member comments at the end of the meeting.

Superintendent Joe Ann Denning stressed again Tuesday that the decision was not about four days versus five days, but the issue had to be based on the district’s financial capabilities and doing what is best for the students. All districts, not just Peach County, are watching their finances closely as state funding is cut and insurance prices are on the rise, she said.

The approved calendar mostly resembled the calendar proposed by Denning during a board study session last week. The main change was five additional professional learning days for teachers, bringing that total to 10.

Teachers will have three planning days on each end of the school year, and four interspersed throughout the calendar.

The 2012-13 calendar includes 170 instructional days and 180 work days for teachers, up from current totals of 152 and 154, respectively.

The school year will begin Aug. 13 and end May 24, 2013.

To contact writer Caryn Grant, call 256-9751.

This story was originally published March 7, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Peach school board approves return to five-day school week."