Tim French

A group of Wyoming legislators want to give Wyoming’s staff and students a longer summer, however other legislators and Park County School District 1 voiced concerns that the bill could negatively impact student learning.

After passing through the Senate, the bill died in the House Education Committee on Friday with only one vote in support.

SF 82 also known as the summer preservation act was drafted with the idea of bringing back the joy of learning, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Evie Brennan (R-Cheyenne) and co-sponsor Chris Rothfuss (D-Laramie) said.

In addition to Rothfuss’ bipartisan support, area legislators Sen. Tim French (R-Powell) and Rep. Dalton Banks (R- Cowley) co-sponsored the bill. 

Summer has been getting shorter and schools have been returning in August, French said.

“I just wanted them to have a full three months or whatever off in the summer because many try to get a job and that kind of thing, so that was my main motivation,” French said.

Banks referred the Tribune to Brennan for comment. 

If passed, the bill would have restricted the school year to the dates between Labor Day and Memorial Day, and it would have shortened the minimum number of days required in a school year from 175 to 165. Rothfuss said the bill decreases the minimum number of days but does not tell a district how many days their school year has to be as long as it takes place between Labor Day and Memorial Day.

If schools chose to have a different calendar, the bill repeated state statute that allows districts to apply through the State Board of Education for a separate alternative schedule.

“To change and for our schools to change and be a place of joy and a place where the students and teachers can come and find joy and fun and learning, we’re going to have to change our thought process on how education works,” Brennan said. “And if we don’t change anything, nothing’s going to change. So we have to be willing to take risks and change the status quo in order to see the joy come back into education.”

What do schools think?

While some school districts have voiced concerns that the proposed school year would limit learning time for students, Rothfuss said the most important thing is that both teachers and students are loving to go to school.

“We have an exceptional education system. I was involved with all of the efforts over the past years, since I’ve been in the Legislature to build the accountability in education act and testing system and everything else we put in place … but at the end of the day, I feel like we’ve done too much,” Rothfuss said. “We certainly have created an exceptional system and our students are well educated, but I feel like we’re over pressuring and creating an environment of stress instead of environment of joy because of legislator choices.”

Park County School District 1 Superintendent Jay Curtis was advocating “staunchly against” the bill he said during the school board’s Feb. 27 meeting.

“It’s not that I’m a party killer that doesn’t think summer ought to be longer, it’s that the reason that we make summer shouldn’t be because we think kids need more summer,” Curtis said

Decisions should be made based on impact to student learning, he added.

As Powell’s current calendar stands, Curtis said that he can tell people the reason behind “every decision on that calendar.”

“And if [the bill] rolls through and they restrict us to Labor Day to Memorial Day … you still have to meet the hours, which means that’s going to obliterate our professional development schedule,” Curtis said. “If we are going to be an institution that follows research and makes decisions based on research, research tells us that the single most impactful variable with student learning is the quality of the teacher in front of them. And our teachers are very well trained, which is why we have been so successful, because we train our teachers well.”

Members of Powell’s board also had questions about the bill. Trustee Beau Fulton questioned whether or not a large number of snow days could potentially put the district in violation of statute if they then had to hold school past Labor Day. 

The application process is a lengthy one, Curtis said. While in Meeteetse he applied for the district’s alternative school year. The application was roughly 60 pages every three years with a 20 page update due yearly, he said. 

How’d it start

The bill was drafted with the goal of decreasing stress for students and staff by giving them a longer break, Brennan said.

“The genesis for this [bill]  is just hearing a lot that teachers are wore out — they’re burnt out, students are wore out,”  Brennan said, adding “We’re putting a lot of stuff on them and a lot of schools, not all but a lot of schools run into the middle of June and then the kids go back in August. They really don’t get a good summer break, a good vacation and a good rest. We just wanted to give teachers and students a true summer vacation and break.” 

Starting school after Labor Day and ending it before Memorial Day is something that used to be done, Brennan said, and she added that she had heard positive feedback from students and teachers. 

While the proposed calendar mirrored what had been done in the past, returning to an old calendar was only part of the motivation. Legislators had also heard that people like taking vacations over Memorial and Labor Day. 

What now?

Until it failed in committee on Friday, the bill had passed all three readings in the senate without amendment before being introduced in the House and referred to the Education Committee. 

Brennan expressed interest in drafting a similar bill for next year’s session that would address some of the concerns voiced by the Education Committee.

The bill was killed in part due to concern that while the bill would not affect block grants, districts could possibly reduce teacher salaries as a result of a shorter school year.

“I think that’s something to look into, seeing if we can make sure that there’s a protection [so] teachers don’t get paid less just because they’re working less days, which would in fact, give teachers a raise, and our teachers work hard for our students, that would not be a bad thing,” Brennan said.

Another concern voiced by the committee was that districts would not have autonomy to decide their own calendars. However, Brennan said the alternative schedule process would allow them to do so. 

If a similar bill is introduced next year, French indicated he would be in support of the bill.