Washington Twp. School District Establishes Preliminary Schedule for 2011-12

With the 2010-2011 school year now working its way into the latter stages across the district, planning has begun for next year: not only from a budget perspective, but from a scheduling standpoint, as well.

District Superintendent Jeff Mohre debuted a preliminary draft of what the 2011-12 schedule could look like for the Washington Township School District, which encompasses all three elementary schools (Cucinella, Flocktown-Kossman, and Old Farmers Road) as well as Long Valley Middle School.

Key features of Mohre’s tentative schedule include the start of the school year on Wednesday, Sept. 7, after the Labor Day holiday, as well as a Teacher Professional Development seminar, which is currently scheduled for the Columbus Day holiday break on October 10-11. The district held a similar seminar for its teachers during the same holiday break in 2010, and was met with positive results.

“Respected senior members of our faculty said that (this year’s professional development seminar) was the best professional development in-house they’ve had in 30 years,” said Mohre, “so we’re not going to mess with it.”

Aside from spring break occurring a week later in 2012 (April 2-6) than in 2011, Mohre does not anticipate too many large-scale changes to the schedule, provided that inclement weather does not play as large a role as it has in school cancellations this year.

Mohre’s tentative schedule has four days set aside as emergency closing days. If all four are used by the President’s Day holiday break (February 20-21), the board proposed taking away the off-day for students on February 21, in order to help the district finish the school year in a timely manner.

“We want to avoid going into the last week in June, which for many kids is the start of camp, and for many of our teachers, the start of summer employment,” said Mohre.

If all goes according to plan, the district should be able to avoid continuing the school year into the summer season. With the four emergency days factored in, Mohre projects June 19, 2012 as the last day of school for the district next year. If no emergency days are used, the last day of school could occur almost a week earlier on June 13.

“If that happens, it also helps us beat some of the heat in the buildings (in June),” said Mohre.

The Board of Education is waiting to finalize its 2011-12 schedule until it is able to discuss and align it with the West Morris Regional School District. Since West Morris Central High School is not a part of the Washington Township School District, it operates under a different schedule.

One consideration to take in that regard, according to Mohre, is the fact that the high school has to set a date for next year’s Project Graduation, which would be unable to be changed once it is scheduled.

“High schools are very different (from our district) and want to protect themselves around the central key event of Project Graduation,” said Mohre. “There is a lot invested (by West Morris) in that date.”