Longer days, shorter year for Fulton schools?

By Kristina Torres

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

What’s 11 extra minutes a day in class equal? Five more days of summer, according to a recommendation that would cut Fulton County’s school calendar to 175 days.

Georgia’s standard school year is 180 days.

The proposal — the first from a major metro Atlanta system — comes as the economy keeps its viselike grip on schools and the state slashes its public funding.

It goes to Fulton’s school board next week, although a final decision will not come for another two months as officials seek public comment. The board will meet at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Dunwoody Springs Elementary School, 8100 Roberts Drive in Sandy Springs.

“Being taken into consideration [is] how we can deliver instruction in the best way possible but also find financial savings,” said Fulton spokeswoman Susan Hale, who is a member of the system’s calendar committee.

State lawmakers this year gave school systems the option to ditch the standard calendar as long as children spent the same amount of time in instruction for the year.

Among the first to embrace the change were two small systems outside the metro area, which over the summer turned to longer daily hours and shorter years.

The 4,000 students in middle Georgia’s Peach County now attend school four days a week, which system officials estimate saves more than $407,000 in operations and transportation costs.

In rural North Georgia, Murray County officials went to a 160-day school year that starts after Labor Day. In turn, elementary school students get another hour in class and middle and high school students another 30 minutes — for a savings of $124,000 this school year.

In Fulton, teachers would still work 190 days. Early release days for students would be eliminated, becoming full teacher training days. If approved, the calendar would start with the 2010-11 school year.

The proposal would give students a full week off at Thanksgiving. It also provides an option of starting the school year a week later in August.

Hale did not have a dollar figure but said the committee expected savings in areas such as transportation, since school buses would use a week’s less of fuel.