By Alyssa Schnugg
News Editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com
Oxford School District officials plan to appoint a committee to examine the possibility of changing the academic calendar, according to OSD Superintendent Brian Harvey.
“It is a discussion that we are going to have in the fall for the following year,” Harvey said Monday. “We will have a committee and community forums just to investigate, but there has been no decision and there won’t be a decision without those things happening first.”
In March, the Mississippi State Board of Education approved the OSD’s request to become a District of Innovation. Part of the district’s initial application included a possible modified school calendar in the 2022-2023 school year, which could mean moving to a year-round schedule. However, Harvey said there are several different ways a school calendar could be modified and it doesn’t necessarily mean a year-round school.
“The research says you really don’t need to have a summer break that’s longer than six weeks,” he said. “How you break that up is really up to the community.”
The Corinth School District is the only district in Mississippi currently using a modified calendar. It made the move three years ago. The school’s calendar has a shorter summer break with a three-week fall break, the usual two-week break around the Christmas holidays and a two-week spring break.
Harvey said if the OSD does move to a modified calendar, it would give the district time to remediate children before the end of the year when they’re not where they need to be.
“We’re looking to replace summer school and do remediation during the year,” Harvey said.
Those in favor of a modified calendar say the shorter summer break reduced what is known as “summer slide,” when students often lose some of the skills and knowledge they gained the year before.
Harvey said part of the process will be having conversations with community organizations like the Oxford Park Commission, LeapFrog and the YMCA to see what services could be available for parents during the breaks.
Harvey said the board will begin looking at possible candidates for the committee as early as July.
If the committee decides to proceed with this option, a proposal will be made to the OSD Board of Trustees in December 2019 at the regularly called board meeting, which is open for public participation and streamed online for public viewing.
“This will be a very public process,” Harvey said.
