By Kyle Kandetzki – Editor-in-Chief

Drastic changes might be coming to the Milford School district schedule in 2013-2014.

Milford has proposed a new school schedule that will remove certain holidays and vacations in order to save school days. These proposed changes aren’t official, but would tentatively end the 2013-2014 school year on June 5th.

“The best part of the new schedule idea is the new end date,” said junior Ben Buczek. “A longer summer is better than the other days we used to have off.”

The district set out a goal this year to capture days for several reasons, but was quite obviously motivated by the massive amount of days that have been cancelled for weather this past year. The district also cited that it would provide fewer interruptions for students to improve the flow of a school year.

In order to gain the pulse of students and staff alike, a survey was sent out that over 3,500 people responded to. Most polls offered close contests in favor and against using days that were previously unused. Another noticeable trend was the difference and response between parents and the staff.

The first question directed to the parents and staff was whether or not the school year should start two days earlier, which would mean students report on August 28th. Parents responded with a majority of 52.6% saying ‘Yes’ and 32.9% saying ‘No’.

Though on the staff side of this proposal, teachers would be required to report on August 26th, and this showed in the response. Staff voted with a 56% ‘No’ to coming in earlier over 35% ‘Yes’. The mixed response has kept the idea possible, but it will most likely remain how it was in 2012-2013.

Staff and parents were more in agreement on their response for whether to keep the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah. Parents voted 80% ‘Yes’ for remaining open and staff followed with 68%. Milford has proposed to eliminate the day off, but will allowed those of the Jewish faith to take an excused day off if necessary.

The district has also proposed that schools will be open on Columbus Day, though the results were less of a huge majority. Parents voted ‘Yes’ to staying open in a 66% majority, while staff only voted with a 50% majority. Milford has also committed to opening on Veteran’s Day after another small majority between respondents. The district would commit those days to lessons on Columbus and on America’s veterans should this schedule be accepted.

“I have no issue with school’s being open on days like Columbus and Veteran’s Day,” said junior Trace Malone. “It is only a few missed days so it isn’t a big difference anyway.”

The most split opinion came from the decision on what to do with February vacation. Ideas on the survey included keeping it how it is, getting rid of it completely, and various four day weekends. The decision that gained the most support was a 4-day weekend that gets rid of a Friday and the following Monday. This would gain three days that would usually be in June. This vacation would take place starting the weekend before President’s Day.

“Having a four day February vacation is better than a full nine days off,” said Mr. Kulenych. “The vacation we had wasn’t really necessary in the first place. It’s right after midterms and it interrupts the start of a new semester.”

This new schedule would leave a cushion for many more snow days to fall back on. It would allow the last possible day before vacation days would be taken away to be June 20th.

This new schedule is not yet officially in place, but it will be debated and most likely voted on by April.

(Photo courtesy milforded.org)