”The children start school now in August. They say it has to do with air-conditioning, but I know sadism when I see it.”― Rick Bragg, “My Southern Journey: True Stories From the Heart of the South.”
The calendar insists it’s time for back-to-school haircuts, new backpacks and last-minute attempts to finish at least one book off the summer reading list. The scorching temperature argues for lazy hammock swings, lawn sprinklers and Popsicle parties.
The calendar wins out this week as thousands of metro Atlanta kids go back to school. With Georgia sweltering in temperatures in the 90s, the opening of classes Tuesday in Atlanta, Cherokee, Cobb, Decatur and Rockdale seems all the harder. Those districts will be joined Wednesday by Buford, Clarke, Clayton, Douglas, Gwinnett, Henry, Marietta and Oconee. Fayette and Forsyth start Thursday, while DeKalb and Fulton resume Aug. 7.
Reopening amid a heat wave is complicated by air quality and health warnings. Metro areas were under a Code Orange alert last week, which means those with respiratory issues, such as allergies and asthma, ought to avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.
Most Georgia schools close in late May and reopen in early August, in contrast to other regions of the country that still hew to the traditional mid-June/Labor Day schedule. A Pew Research Center study found no districts in the New England and Middle Atlantic states resume classes before Aug. 26. Many Americans are still packing their cars for beach vacations or depositing their kids at Y camps since schools in their towns won’t resume for four or five weeks.
Georgia starts back sooner for several reasons. The earlier school starting times enable all end-of-the-semester testing to finish up before children depart for the Christmas break. In other states, students come back from winter holidays with a week of exams waiting for them. Proponents of early August openings also contend it helps reduce the summer slide in math and reading skills. The schedule also appeals to educators, so it’s viewed as a recruitment tool.
School calendars fall under local control, meaning that school boards determine when classes resume rather than the state. Many Georgia districts follow a balanced calendar, which features a nine-week summer and weeklong breaks in the fall and February, along with a week at Thanksgiving, two at Christmas and the traditional April spring break.
No matter the original impetus, a lot of parents in Georgia have come to accept and even appreciate the early starting date and the resulting shorter summer vacation. That was made clear in 2018 when a Senate study committee considered imposing a uniform later starting date for all Georgia public K-12 schools.
The Senate committee was stacked with tourism and business reps who had ulterior motives for wanting to delay the resumption of classes until after Labor Day. A longer summer would benefit Georgia’s tourism industry, which relies on vacationing families for revenue and high school students for staffing.
The committee incited both parents and educators who balked at the General Assembly interfering in a local decision. The Cherokee County School District put the question out to parents, 80% of whom favored the system’s longtime balanced calendar and opposed a later start date.
Teachers testified that weeklong breaks throughout the school year provided needed stress relief. The Professional Association of Georgia Educators presented the findings of a poll that drew 18,000 responses, 83% of which endorsed leaving the school calendar to local districts to set.
In 2005, the Georgia Legislature also attempted to force schools to push back the first day of class, duplicating a 2004 North Carolina law that mandated schools reopen in late August. Then-Gov. Sonny Perdue opposed the legislation, and it failed. North Carolina faces increasing pressure from school districts for greater latitude in setting their calendars with a few defying the law and resuming classes early this year.
Transplants to Georgia from the Northeast are still shocked at first to learn they can’t attend the annual August family reunion in the Adirondacks or join friends for a week at the Jersey shore.
But those parents warm to the frequent breaks throughout the year in Georgia when they realize that giving up a vacation in August allows them a much cheaper and less crowded trip to Disney in October. Yes, it’s hot walking to school in August, but so is that two-hour wait for Space Mountain.
