PANAMA CITY — Students will return to school next year on Aug. 18, under a calendar approved Tuesday by the Bay District School Board.
Parents will see few changes in next year’s school calendar, but start times that were adjusted this year to accommodate transportation’s struggles to get students to school on time haven’t been ironed out.
“We haven’t addressed that yet,” said Superintendent Bill Husfelt. “I would think one of our goals would be to put 15 minutes more in the elementary day, but it’s too early to say.”
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Other key dates next year are:
- Thanksgiving break: Nov. 23-27
- Christmas holidays: Dec. 21-Jan. 1
- Last day of school: June 1
Approving the calendar was one of a number of actions taken by the School Board.
Terminated teacher: The board announced it was prepared to move forward with action to terminate Arnold High School teacher, Katherine Slimp, who was suspended without pay last month after she admitted to making inappropriate comments with sexual innuendos to students.
School Board attorney Franklin Harrison said Slimp has hired an attorney from Tallahassee to represent her in an upcoming hearing with the state Division of Administrative Hearings to determine if she was properly dismissed for her actions.
If the court rules in the district’s favor, Slimp’s termination will become final.
Tech and testing: The board took action finalize wording on over a dozen policies to align with language used in state statutes, something the board had been frustrated in keeping up with along with chasing ever-changing testing and curriculum guidelines.
Changes brought in by the Common Core initiative to make ties to technology stronger for standardized testing were also examined. Board Chairman Steve Moss announced that a portion of the essay writing component of the Florida Standards Assessments this year will be graded by a computer.
But one adjustment to emphasize the technology moved Husfelt to send legislators a two-page letter calling for relief from testing this year.
“While we do meet the standards they require, we are in no way ready to do everything they’re asking us to do,” he said.
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The district is technologically prepared with plenty of computers to go around for instructional purposes, but is not prepared to dislocate classes for weeks at a time so students can use them for testing.
“I would encourage any parent, teacher or administrator to let their legislator know how they feel about all that,” Husfelt said. “They’re hearing it, but are they hearing it enough to make real change?”
In other action, the board recognized Bay District’s principal of the year, Patti Fowler, of Oscar Patterson Elementary, and vice principal of the year, Ivan Beach, from Deane Bozeman School.
