Q: I want to know why the Coos Bay and North Bend School Districts don't agree on their school calendar for the next year. Why is it that Coos Bay and North Bend can't have the same vacation schedule? The differences in schedules creates hardships for families who may have kids in two different districts or parents that work in one district and have kids in another, or parents who work in two different districts. And why did Coos Bay schedule all of their teacher staff development days for Wednesdays? They used to be on Fridays so that families could have three-day weekends. What is the reason for doing it mid-week?

A: The calendar for each school district is developed by the superintendent and school board, reflecting individual concerns of boards, parents and students.

North Bend Superintendent Dr. B.J. Hollensteiner said the North Bend district's schedule is designed to have as many full weeks as possible because parents become concerned when too many short weeks are scheduled.

Next year, however, North Bend schools will open on Wednesday, Sept. 5. Hollensteiner said this was done because students already have that Monday off because of Labor Day, and she and the School Board wanted to give parents one more day to be with their children.

North Bend's winter break will begin on Monday, Dec. 24, with students finishing up on the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 21. The break will run through Friday, Jan. 4, 2008, with students returning to school on Monday, Jan. 7. Spring break will be the week of March 24 and the last day of school will be June 6.

In Coos Bay, Superintendent Dr. Karen Fischer Gray said Coos Bay schools will open on Tuesday, Sept. 4, a day before North Bend, and end June 13, a week after the other district.

Winter break for Coos Bay students will be from Monday, Dec. 17, through Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2008. Spring break in Coos Bay also will be the week of March 24.

Gray said districts develop their own schedules, without comparison with others.

“Basically, we look at what is best in our position for our parents and our staff,” Gray said. “We're following exactly the way we always do it. We like to come back as close as Jan. 1 as we can.”

She said the Coos Bay district's winter break begins earlier than the break in North Bend because some people travel to visit their families for the holiday and starting vacation so late in the season doesn't give them enough time to do so.

Gray added that while there are students in Coos Bay who have families members who attend or work in North Bend's district, there aren't many and the calendar is designed to accommodate the needs of the majority.

“Parents work all over the county, so I can't imagine having to match all of the county schools in order to accommodate where parents work. I just can't imagine doing that. As far as the kids on interdistrict transfers, while that may be problematic, there aren't that many of them for us to have to match,” Gray said. “This is an individual decision that a school district makes for the benefit of their parents, children and staff. And to the best of our ability we try to accommodate everyone, but we can't always do that.”

She went on to say that staff development days for her district were changed from Friday to Wednesday for the 2007-08 school year to make them more successful.

She said she and the board looked at successful districts in Oregon to learn when they hold their professional development days and found they all had it mid-week.