By Joni Simon
Contributing Writer

The BISD school board has resolved the biggest issue of the 2008-2009 school year calendar. Students needn’t worry about studying for finals during the winter break. The fall semester will end before the holiday season. One issue remaining is the 2009 Boerne-Samuel Champion High School graduation date. The calendar graduates seniors Wednesday, June 3, 2009, something that didn’t sit well with the school board.

“There are going to be parents who are not going to be happy about that,” Trustee Lydia Beaver said. “Many parents work and that’s right in the middle of the week, not to mention relatives who might want to come to town for the ceremony.”

District officials are looking into a possible graduation date of Saturday, May 30, 2009, even though that’s one and one-half days before the school year officially ends.

Although Trustee Erik Thormaehlen pointed out that seniors might not show up for those last two days of school, Boerne High School Principal Betty Butler told the board that other districts have graduated seniors before the end of the school year and, if that’s what the school board approves, she and her staff would work with borderline students, who might not know if they’re going to graduate until, quite literally, the last minute.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Sandra Radtke said she’d have to check on what impact a graduation that falls before the last day of school would have on funding determined by attendance rates.

“This will be the first graduation at Boerne-Samuel Champion High School and it will be well-attended,” said Trustee Susan Hulett, a proponent of changing the June 3 graduation date.

All Boerne high school students will attend Champion High next year while Boerne High is being renovated. The new campus will be completed by mid-June, according to Don Tillis, director of facilities.

“Everyone will vacate Boerne High School immediately at the end of this school year, so it can be gutted,” Tillis said. “We have only 14 months to renovate.”

The 2008-2009 calendar approved by the board is the one favored by district parents by an 80 to 20 percent margin, according to Ernie Pyles, chair of the school calendar subcommittee. The other version ended the fall semester in January, after the winter holiday break. Parents had the opportunity to review and vote on the two calendars posted on the district Web site.

Pyles said some dates are written in stone from the start and cannot be manipulated. For one, state law stipulates the new school year cannot begin before the fourth Monday of the month. BISD schools open their doors exactly on that day, August 25.

Students will have days off on Sept. 1 and Oct. 13. This year, Wednesday, Nov. 26, is added to the Thanksgiving break, because “many students take off that day anyway,” Pyles told the board.

Another non-negotiable issue with the committee, he said, was no less than two full weeks for the winter break, which begins with an early release day Friday, Dec. 19. Students return to school Jan. 6, the start of the spring semester. Monday, Jan. 5 is an instruction workday because teachers, Pyles said, wanted to ease into the new semester. In addition, that week ends with the traditional Fair Day off on Jan. 9, 2009.

Students can look forward to just one day off in February, President’s Day, Feb. 16, which is a teacher in-service day.

“Spring Break, scheduled March 9 through 13, coincides with other districts in the area,” Pyles said. “Larger colleges are off the following week. Our high school students won’t be partying with college students on South Padre Island.”

Pyles said the subcommittee did address the issue of vacations for those families with students in Boerne schools as well as at the college level.

Ultimately, the consensus of opinion was that “college kids generally don’t hang out with the folks over Spring Break,” he said.

In April, students will have the Friday before Easter off. The following Monday, April 13, is a bad weather day. May 25 is also scheduled as a bad weather day. The last day of school is June 2, 2009, an early release day.

Pyles agreed that a May 30 graduation might be beneficial to graduates who want to dive right into university life. “There are some colleges that begin the first week of June for summer school,” he said.