Get ready Warriors, because Pinellas County schools will be starting two weeks earlier starting in the 2016-2017 school year. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Pinellas County School Board voted for schools to start on August 10, 2016 for students, while teachers will start on August 1. Each quarter would have 44 days, and the last day of school will be May 25, 2017. The Tampa Bay Times quoted Superintendent Mike Grego, who said, “The calendar committee has vetted all of these variables out. I know there’s no perfect calendar, but this is their recommendation.”

This change means this summer shall be approximately 2 weeks shorter. However, subsequent summers will be the usual 11 weeks. This change comes on the heels of nearly an identical change by the Hillsborough County School Board, which voted back in September to start the 2016-2017 school year on August 10, and end on May 26, 2017.

The proposal has received opposition among teachers, some of whom wore red ‘Just Let Us Teach’ shirts to the School Board meeting. One complaint comes from Gym and PE teachers, who believe early August is too hot for PE.

HOPE teacher and head coach for JV Football and Varsity Wrestling Mr. Dan Smalley was not concerned about the changes impacting him (football starts on August 3).  But he did sympathize with the gym teachers’ worries, with Smalley commenting, “Elementary schools don’t have gymnasiums like middle and high schools to hide from the sun if needed.” He added that “Little kids also aren’t as good yet at gauging when to stop and take a rest” when they’re getting too hot in the sun.

Among other teachers, reaction to the change has been similarly subdued. Mrs. Colton, AP and Honors World History teacher, said, “I do not have a problem with starting earlier – it just means we will get out earlier in the school year.” Mrs. Colton also said the early start date would give more time for review before the AP exam.

Mr. Ziesenheim, Probability/Statistics and AP Statistics teacher, remarked, “I don’t necessarily support it, but I do understand the reasoning.” Ziesenheim commented that an earlier start date would mean an earlier end date, which he liked “because there will be less ‘down time’ after all the standardized tests. It’s hard to keep students motivated after they have already taken their end of year exams.”

Like Colton, Mr. Ziesenheim believed the shift will allow more time for AP exam preparation. On the other hand, Ziesenheim was disappointed that time would have to be lost in the first year.