How would it be more cost effective to operate under a traditional school calendar?
August is typically one of the two hottest months of the year. If we removed the need to cool the schools, with students in the classrooms, during this time our non-instructional costs would be reduced. It is not as expensive to cool schools in May and June – due to demand and usage charges. For example, Tulsa Public Schools (Oklahoma) pushed back its school start date from August 19 to post-Labor Day and experienced a savings of approximately $500,000 – as reported in the November 17, 2002 Tulsa World article, “Late opening of schools saved money”. A recent report by the Texas Comptroller says, “As I stated in my original report, Saving Summer: Lessons Learned, the academic benefits of stretching the school year have not been proved; what we do know – it’s costing Texans $790 million annually,” With limited dollars to spend on academic programming and teacher salaries, we feel it is important to save money where we can without compromising the quality of our education system.
