2012-2013 School Calendar

Click here for the entire 2012-2013 school year calendar.

FAQs about the proposed changes in the 2012-13 school calendar

Q. What does the calendar mean for teachers in terms of work adjustment days? Do we now have only 5 instead of 10?
A. In 2012-13 teachers (and all employees) will have 5 additional days of work: two instructional days – January 3-4 – and three professional learning days during mid-winter break in February. That means only 5 work adjustment days for 2012-13 instead of 10. For the following school year, plans are to reinstate all 10 work adjustment days, so our employees will be back to their full work schedule year and salary.

Q. Why were only five employee work days reinstated this year and five next year? Why not 10 this year?
A. A three-year revenue and expenditure projection indicates that if funding is to be sustainable, (and not on a cycle of restore/cut/restore/cut, etc.) the reinstatement of employee work days and student instructional days needs to be incremental.

Q. Does this calendar change any start and end times for the school day in 2012-13?
A. No, start and end times will remain the same as set earlier this school year. They are different from the current school year because 20 minutes has been added to the school day to compensate for the reduced number of instructional days.

2012 – 2013 certified staff work hours 

Q. Is there no other solution than to take our mid-winter break?
A. There really isn’t a good time to add days back to the calendar. We know from the experience of crafting school calendars that any one calendar does not please all people. We were not changing the first semester’s schedule because it begins only 3 months away. We also did not make a change to the major holiday breaks, most of which are in the first semester. 

Q. Is it not possible to return the work adjustment days to the faculty for Thanksgiving break instead of winter break?
A. We have found that many make plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and because of the timing, we wanted to give families as much time as possible for making changes. Therefore second semester is the time period for the changes.

Q. Why are the five days not added back to the beginning or end of the school year?
A. We wanted to keep the beginning and ending of the school year the same because of plans that families make around both of these dates. We also have many organizations in the community set their calendar by our school start and end dates. We wanted to cause the least disruption to individuals and organizations.

Q. Why take away two of our planning days that we were finally getting back?
A. The Professional Learning days in January are not being taken away. We are moving one of them to December 19 and the second one to May 31.

Q. Why are only two of the added employee days instructional days?
A. We did consider making all of the days instructional days but wanted to take a more balanced approach by splitting the days between instruction and professional learning. Also, while some may want to see five instructional days, I am sure there are others who don’t want any. The balanced approach gets us closer to a workable solution. In a longer view of events, we will come to you in the fall with a calendar for 180 instructional days for school year 2013-14.

Q. Would it be possible to have an option to not work those three professional learning days in February? 
A. Employees can use their three personal days or, if necessary, take leave without pay for the three days.  If individuals choose to use personal days, they still receive pay. Even if an individual chooses leave without pay for all three professional learning days, that is still fewer days without pay than the ten days we had planned for next year. Not ideal, but... 

2012-13 proposed budget allows two school days to be reinstated

In a called budget workshop Tuesday, May 29, the Griffin-Spalding County Board of Education members saw “the light at the end of the tunnel,” as Superintendent Dr. Curtis Jones, likes to say, when members learned that the financial condition of the school system would allow two school days and three professional learning days be added to the school calendar for 2012-13.

The change in revenue, that makes it possible to add back five days to employees’ work schedules, comes from several sources:

• cost reduction proposals of $3 million adopted earlier by the board of education
• better instructional models in 2011-12 that brought also increased state funding, mainly in the Early Intervention Program and gifted services areas
• funds saved by positions not filled in central office and schools
• step raises not given to employees in several years 
• changes to the state equalization grant formula driving more funds to lower wealth systems
• positive changes in the local tax digest

Jim Smith, Assistant Superintendent and CFO, said, “School system employees who work more than 180 days have had a total of 15 days cut from their work schedules over the past three years.  For the 2012-13 school year, the previously adopted school calendar had 10 more days cut. “

“It is gratifying that careful planning and conservative spending by our leadership and every employee have paid off so that we are able to begin to reinstate school days in a manner that is sustainable financially.”

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