January 19, 2023
Dear GUSD Family (Staff, Students, Parents, Guardians, and Community),
I wanted to take a minute to update you about the work being done on next year’s calendar. At our GUSD governing board meeting last evening results of the recent calendar survey were shared with the board. The survey was posted on the GUSD website for about 10 days over the past couple of weeks.
Two calendar options were presented. One continued with same pattern the district has operated with over the past several years with school starting in late July or early August and finishing by Memorial Day. The second option provide a full week off for Thanksgiving rather than two days, but required students and staff to return for 3 days after Memorial Day.
There was a total of 975 responses to the survey. 606 responses were from parents and guardians, 213 responses were from students, and 156 responses came from staff. Overall the results were tipped slightly in favor of option 2 with 52.5% favoring that choice. Staff preferred option 2 with 53.2% choosing that calendar. Parents and guardians favored the option 1 calendar (similar to our current calendar) with a 52.3% preference. Student preferred option 2 by an almost 2 to 1 ratio with 65.7% preferring that option.
The governing board will make a decision about the 23-24 calendar at the next regularly scheduled board meeting on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 6:00 PM in the Mofford Center (old junior high) Board Room. The survey results were indicative of no real clear opinion about how important a full week off at Thanksgiving is to our stakeholders. Parents and guardians slightly preferred to mirror the calendar of the last several years. Staff slightly preferred to have a full week off at Thanksgiving and return to school after Memorial Day. Students clearly wanted a full week off at Thanksgiving. Overall option 2 was slightly preferred, but not by a wide margin.
Taking all of the information into consideration, I will be recommending that the board approve a calendar for 23-24 which reflects the same pattern as we have been operating on for the past several years. I want to thank everyone who took time to participate in the survey. The closeness of the results illustrate how difficult it is to make everyone pleased with a calendar. I trust that we can all work together to do our best with the calendar the board approves.
Thank you all, for all you do to support GUSD as we try to live out our vision, “Capturing Hearts, Empowering Minds”.
Best wishes to all,
Jerry Jennex, Superintendent
