The Newhall School District’s calendar alignment, or lack thereof, created concerns Tuesday night for parents, teachers and board members who all spoke out on the issue at the meeting.

While there was no agenda item for discussion on whether the elementary school district should align its schedule with the William S. Hart Union High School District — the local junior high and public high school district for the Santa Clarita Valley — Newhall officials heeded the discussion for about an hour.

The urgency of the discussion came after online threats by parents promising to pull their children from schools in October and June during the nonalignment, in order to use “the power of the purse” to convince district officials to change the calendar. (Schools are funded in large part by the state for their Average Daily Attendance figure, meaning absences financially hurt schools.) District officials expressed explicit concern that such actions would likely only hurt arts and music programs, or potentially staffing, next year.

Related story: Newhall School District Parents Planning To Pull Kids From School To Protest Calendar Days

The districts’ calendars do not align for 26 days, compared to two different days for the Castaic Union School District (which has elementary and junior high grades at Castaic Middle School), which recently aligned with Hart; 12 different days for the Saugus Union School District and 18 days for Sulphur Springs.

District officials rationalized that the extra week at spring break and a week off in the fall, allows for a shorter summer, which reduces “summer learning loss,” and provides the best conditions  for students in a trimester schedule who undergo regular testing — requirements of elementary school districts.

Several teachers, members of the district’s teachers union who claimed they received undue criticism over the calendar alignment, showed up to explain why their schedule is different — prompting several parents to share they weren’t upset with the teachers. In fact, some of the parents explained teachers were receiving the brunt of the criticism due to the way many of their previous calendar queries were handled by district administrators.

“We were told, ‘Talk to your teachers’ site rep,’” said Clark Everitt, one of the parents who spoke to the board, explaining many parents interpreted that as though there was nothing that parents could do, and it was the teachers’ “fault.” And parents were also upset over claims by board members who said they were completely unaware of the calendar schedule. “We don’t blame the teachers, we absolutely love them, and please stop telling your employees to tell us to go talk to the teacher (union representatives).”

In a sense, the teachers are responsible for the schedule, but, according to Newhall School District board members, that’s because the board has instructed administrators to defer to the advice of the district’s educational and instructional experts, as far as the best practices for educating, with respect to the calendar, said Newhall School District board President Christy Smith.

“This isn’t about being insensitive to the importance of family time,” Smith said, echoing the sentiments of some of the other board members and teachers who spoke in defense of the calendar, and shared their experiences with the split schedules, as well, from their own families.

“What we are balancing though, is what teachers tell us is what’s most effective for your child’s learning,” Smith said, “so we will be weighing all those considerations.”

The district wouldn’t be able to do anything with this year’s academic schedule, as it’s been negotiated and set in contract with the teachers. However, it would take the concerns into consideration when it holds its annual discussion with teacher representatives, which takes place every year.

However, Newhall officials also seemed to express the intent to continue their deference to the expertise of the teachers in selecting the calendar.

In response to questions regarding why the other elementary school districts could match up much easier to Hart — at one point, a few parents encouraged school leaders to essentially “take the high road” and adapt to the high school schedule because it’s harder for their older children to miss school — at least two board members who had experience working with the Hart district questioned the junior high and high school district’s policies that make it harder for kids to miss school during non-mandatory attendance times.

Smith and board member Brian Walters, past president of the Hart district’s fundraising WiSH Foundation, both said the concern shouldn’t exclusively be brought to Newhall, noting there’s “mandatory” attendance for some Hart district programs during the summer.

In response to those claims, Hart district spokesman Dave Caldwell noted the following:

“Students have the opportunity to go to camps, whether it’s band or sports camp, but it is not required or mandatory by the coaches or band leaders that they must attend every day of their camps.”

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