Schools within the Los Alamitos Unified School District are now set to begin Aug. 31 following a presentation by Supt. Andrew Pulver to the board Tuesday night.
“We wanted to just give opportunity for the public to also get a little bit more information about our contingency planning for next school year,” said Pulver. “As you may have heard from last meeting, we said we have more questions than answers, well that continues to be the case,” he said.
Pulver said administrators sent a survey to both teachers and parents to gauge their interest in keeping the scheduled school year of Aug. 5 until May 27, or whether they would support a change to Aug. 31 – through June 11.
Pulver said state educational guidance, thus far, is not entirely clear, noting state officials are having to make decisions for a massive school population.
Though administrators at Los Al Unified is busy planning for a variety of scenarios, Pulver said the later start date would give staff extra time to train and implement new protocols if they are asked to utilize online instruction.
Moreover, he said the calendar change will provide staff additional time to “thoughtfully plan” for whatever comes next for the coming school year, said Pulver.
With more than 5,000 overall survey responses, Pulver said he has never experienced such a massive response to a calendar survey, which alone had more than 2,500 responses. The system polled parents not only about the start date but other issues as well.
He said both teachers and parents supported the Aug. 31 start date.
While 75 percent of teachers supported the change, approximately 64 percent of parents also supported the change. He said it was encouraging to have the support of parents and teachers on a potential calendar revision.
The board approved a recommendation from Pulver to adopt the revised school year of Aug. 31 through June 11, pending approval of the teacher and employee organizations for the change.
Once a Memorandum of Understanding is in place, Pulver said they will officially notify the staff, parents, and the public of the new start date.
