Peoria (Heart of Illinois ABC) - Families and staff at Peoria Public Schools will have to wait to find out if the next school year will have shorter summers and longer vacations.
The Board of Education proposed to a room full of people, many of whom expressed their views during the more than two hours of public commentary.
At the start of the meeting, superintendent Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat said that the PPS was going back to the two-stage bell they had set. However, a board member said he wanted the revised calendar to be written in the change so that the board could vote on it.
The year will begin two weeks earlier, on August 3, and will also include a two-week long fall and spring break.
The superintendent said that students and teachers would benefit from the changes, but some thought this was not true.
Richwoods Jr. Anthony Joseph asked, "Why are we making this big change as we (we) try to recover from the pandemic?"
The revised calendar was tried out in an experimental program at the Harrison School, and administrators said it was a success.
It was not clear when the calendar change would be back before the board.