School is starting a week earlier in Broward County Public Schools next school year.
The school board agreed on Tuesday to start school on Aug. 12 and finish on June 3, 2025. The reason for the early start date? The district wants to finish the first semester before the winter break starts. The vote was 7-1, but that landslide vote belies the testiness of the meeting, with board members sparring with Broward Teachers Union president Anna Fusco.
“No one is saying let’s increase academic time and not pay our employees,” said board member Torey Alston at one point.
“You forget it impacts everybody, not just the student," Fusco said, testifying in the public comment period.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
“We want to make sure we maximize class time, we want to make sure we maximize kids being in the classroom, learning, but at the same time, we have to think about teachers not being overworked, make sure they have time to plan,” explained board member Daniel Foganholi.
The teachers union is concerned about losing two early release days in the fall semester. Board member Dr. Allen Zeman said that’s a small price to pay.
Local
“Parents love it, students love it, they want to finish, then take a two-week break and start new, that’s a big deal to our community, I’ve heard nothing but that, the thing standing in our way is two early release days in the fall,” Zeman said.
“Yeah, we’re not gonna sit here and allow them to say that we’re holding up, two days, they never came to us and talked to us about two days, four days, six days,” Fusco replied. “Bringing back four hours of instructional time, we’re happy to help, but then we also talked about, when are we gonna do our grades? Those days are there to get grades done.”
Fusco believed the school board is rushing to a decision and said the board should've had this conversation when they were planning the current calendar.
"It's a thought process, a plan, conversation to where we can put it forward and have it worked, instead of putting it forward to say look what we did and then it causes stress and heartache,” Fusco said. "We’re not saying that we’re not willing to talk about having them come out but you just can’t get up there and say take it out because we need them."
Determined to work out the issues with the union, the board made a tentative agreement with BTU to trade the two early release days for more paid planning hours.
“We’re trying to make sure we expose our children to as much academic time as possible,” said superintendent Dr. Peter Licata.
