A change in Texas school districts’ academic calendars have area administrators wondering what, if any, educational benefits will follow.

The state Legislature passed a bill last year requiring school districts to start school no sooner than the fourth Monday in August, which will be Aug. 27 this year.

But neither proponents nor opponents of the change have said starting at a later date will benefit students.

The calendar change has forced Denton and several surrounding school districts to extend the first semester of school past the winter break. Students will have to take semester exams in January when they return, administrators say.

“Most educators believe splitting your semester is not in the best interest of the kids,” said Argyle Superintendent Jason Ceyanes.

When students are on an extended break, they shouldn’t have to worry about finals, he said. It is inevitable that teachers will give projects, papers and assignments during the break, he said, though Argyle administrators will strongly encourage their teachers not to.

Proponents of the change have said students should be expected to retain information for more than a few weeks. Administrators say they are not concerned with retention but with providing students the proper time to focus and adequate time to rest.

Area administrators say they discussed making breaks shorter and removing holidays in order to finish the first semester by mid-December but were not able to make it work.

Aubrey Superintendent James Monaco said district administrators surveyed the community last year and received an overwhelming response that they wanted to keep a week off for Thanksgiving break.

“We would have given only three days off but were concerned students wouldn’t come,” he said.

Between the state’s requirements and the community’s requests, “it was very hard to make an educational decision,” Monaco said.

Education is not what the state had in mind when it decided to move the start of school back, administrators say.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with the way kids learn,” said Denton School Board President Charles Stafford. “It has everything to do with what people are used to. People are used to having summer off.”

A 2000 special report from the office of former Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn states that “the most noticeable results of changes in the school calendar have been the negative effects on the state’s summer seasonal industries, such as travel, tourism, amusements and summer camps.”

Proponents of a later school start date say there is no data to support that a change in the school start date would impact education — an argument school administrators also use in their defense of letting districts decide their own calendars.

But Tina Bruno, executive director of Texans for a Traditional School Year, has said there are financial benefits for schools.

Districts will be able to reduce electric costs by avoiding the summer heat, she said, and the tourism industry’s monetary success will funnel into the state’s general fund, part of which is used for education, which means more resources for the state’s schools and teachers.

Stafford said only a “teeny, tiny slice” of tourism profit goes toward education.

And Monaco said he would like to see how the state figured the assumed energy cost savings.

Students may not be in the classrooms in early August, but that is when University Interscholastic League activities begin, so the schools are being cooled at that time anyway.

“Now I’m cooling the school for 50 percent of my students instead of all of them,” Monaco said.

Superintendents said they are also watching their calendars to make sure high school students get out for the summer with enough time to enroll in summer college courses.

University of North Texas spokesman Rafael McDonnell said the university offers several summer sessions of varying lengths to provide as many opportunities as possible for students wanting to take summer classes.

UNT officials did not make any changes to this year’s summer calendar, but that does not mean they will not take the school districts’ calendar into account in the future, he said.

Many area district administrators say their biggest complaint is that setting the academic calendar should be a district decision.

Ceyanes said some districts might need a later start date based on their students’ needs, like districts that have many children in migrant worker families. But those districts should have the choice to set their own schedule, he said.

“The state Legislature has no business telling school districts when to start and stop school,” Ceyanes said.

SARAH CHACKO can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is schacko@dentonrc.com.

DENTON SCHOOL DISTRICT CALENDAR

The following are highlights from the Denton school district’s 2007-08 academic calendar. Area school districts are similar in structure but may have slight differences.

First Semester Starts: Tuesday, Aug. 28

First Semester Ends: Jan. 17

Second Semester Starts: Jan. 22

Second Semester Ends: June 5

Holidays and breaks

—Labor Day, Sept. 3

—Thanksgiving, Nov. 21, 22 and 23

—Winter Break, Dec. 21 through Jan. 2

—Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday, Jan. 21

—Spring Break, March 17 through 21

—Memorial Day, May 26

—Holidays/make-up days (if needed), March 24 and April 18

SOURCE: Denton school district