In the new era of the Local Control Funding Formula and the Every Student Succeeds Act, school districts have begun showing a renewed dedication to teacher, parent and community engagement. I was disappointed, however, that the Los Angeles Unified School District missed an opportunity to weigh student, family and community concerns before deciding to shift the school calendar once again, delaying the start of classes until later in August.

My time as a teacher at Lincoln High School has shown me what is possible when our district listens to the community. In the 2009-2010 school year, a team of students, parents, teachers, administrators and other school-based staff developed a new operating plan and submitted it to the district through the district’s Public School Choice Initiative. This plan was created through active dialogue, collaboration and commitment to developing school-wide, student-centered reform for the academic and behavioral benefit of all our students. Through this transparent and open process, the team repeatedly heard about the importance of Lincoln High School to the community – how it is more than just a school. It also contains a bank branch, a vibrant parent center and an adult school. These voices were united about the importance of starting school in mid-August – weeks before other LAUSD schools began.

This strategic decision prioritizing the success of our students has benefitted them in a variety of ways. The early start gives teachers and students more time to prepare before tests in the spring. Our students’ pass rate on Advanced Placement exams has risen steadily since making the shift, and our current rate is now greater than the LAUSD average. Our schedule more closely mirrors the semester system of many colleges, allowing our students to participate in the concurrent enrollment opportunities our community worked to develop with California State University Los Angeles and East Los Angeles College and in college preparatory courses like Upward Bound that take place over the summer.

I worry, not only that these important gains that we have made at Lincoln could be jeopardized, but also about the precedent this sets going forward. Empowering schools to make decisions locally allows them to tailor educational opportunities to meet the needs of students in their communities; shifting away from local decision-making may have unforeseen consequences, as a centralized board may not be fully aware of how their decisions could impact local programs, services and educational opportunities.

Sadly, the justification for making this change — concerns about rising summer temperatures in the classroom or summer vacation planning — does not rise to a level of importance greater than the need for flexibility, tailored student support and community voice. This is perhaps most true for my school’s families, 62 percent of whom are from lower socio-economic backgrounds and may not have the privilege of air-conditioned homes. In some cases, temperatures at school may actually be cooler than at home.

As LAUSD fights to attract more students, it should encourage schools to adapt to meet their students’ needs, rather than take a one-size-fits-all approach. We serve diverse families and students who deserve to have a voice in how their school serves students. As we all continue the fight to improve educational outcomes for our students, we must trust school communities – students, parents, teachers, administrators and school-based staff – to make the best decisions.

Marisa Crabtree teaches English and AVID at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles. She is a member of E4E-Los Angeles, a teacher-led education policy and advocacy nonprofit.

Daniel Jocz doesn’t want to move the calendar start date.

The school board just made Daniel Jocz’s job a lot harder.

Jocz, who is a National Teacher of the Year finalist and the 2016 California State Teacher of the Year, already has to record lectures and give homework to cover five chapters of American history over the summer. He does that so his students can learn everything they need to by the time they take the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium tests in April and the Advanced Placement tests in May.

But as LA Unified moves its start date closer to Labor Day, it will ultimately cut into his teaching time before the tests.

“It is going to make my job substantially more difficult,” said the celebrated teacher who has worked at Downtown Magnets High School for 11 years. “We can’t do this as effectively with less instructional time.”

After surveying parents and teachers for months, discussing it for a year and getting input from labor representatives, the LA Unified School board on Tuesday decided to start school a week later, on Aug. 22, next year, and then another week later the following year, on Aug. 28, just before Labor Day.

• Read more: School will start later next year, and Thanksgiving and winter breaks will be shorter

“Late start calendar = LAUSD School Board just cut 3 weeks of instruction for my Advanced Placement students,” tweeted Jocz, who said Wednesday that his fellow teachers are not happy.

“A lot of us in the AP community are taking this very personally and we have our courses planned out,” Jocz said. “Had I known this was pending in this way I would have been more vocal.”

Jocz said the Los Angeles students are a diverse community filled with first-generation Americans and English learners who require more time to become college ready.

“You don’t want students taking tests that they are not ready for, especially if they are the tests that will be used to judge schools and teachers,” Jocz said. He suggested that the nation’s second-largest school district might have the clout to move the testing later in the school year, like to June.

School district officials confirmed that the California Department of Education sets the testing window for SBAC, and AP test dates are set by the College Board, which administers the AP program.

“Scores can go up and down for a variety of reasons and I understand why they want to move the calendar, but it was changed not too long ago and we all adjusted, and graduation and scores increased,” Jocz said, echoing an argument made Tuesday by school board member Monica Garcia.

Dennis Ashendorf, a high school math teacher in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, starts school after Labor Day, as do a handful of Southern California districts. Of 56 school districts surrounding LA Unified, 50 start school in August.

“The end of a semester is not the end of a course in general in public school,” Ashendorf said Wednesday. “For example, Geometry A is followed by Geometry B. Same stuff. An exam in January works well. There is no great reason not to start school after Labor Day if a little federal help was given.”

August learning isn’t all that fruitful, he said, and the argument that beginning school in the first week of August allows end-of-semester tests before winter break really only makes sense for college, not in K-12 where students usually continue the same English or math course over the whole year.

He added, “What a miserable situation. Sacramento can’t solve it. This is a national problem that only Congress can solve. The benefits are many to us.”

Charter schools, which can set their own calendars, often have earlier start dates. But, as charter school leader Caprice Young, CEO of Magnolia Public Schools, pointed out, “We have so many families who also have children in the LA district schools that we have to keep our schedules pretty much in sync with what they’re doing.”

LA Unified moved its start date to earlier in August four years ago after some elementary schools threatened to become charter schools so they could have more days of instruction, board member Garcia said at Tuesday’s meeting. The schools ended up becoming independent charters and affiliated charters anyway, and students started in early to mid-August.

Meanwhile, at least two labor unions told the board Tuesday that their members didn’t want to change the schedule, and the student school board member spoke out against it. Letetsia Fox of the California School Employees Association representing classified employees and Juan Flecha from the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles representing administrators and principals said their membership didn’t want to change the calendar. The principals had become used to the earlier start, and the classified employees were worried about fewer work hours.

Last year, student board member Leon Popa voiced his concern that a shorter summer makes it harder to land summer internships and that “people make plans and have commitments.” He voted to adopt the one-year plan with the schedule suggested by the superintendent’s staff and, in a recent interview on the district’s TV show “Inside LAUSD’s Student Voice,” he said he felt that School Board President Steve Zimmer followed his lead in voting and listened to his concerns.

A report by Budget Services estimated the cost of shifting the calendar at $134.3 million, but that was based on an estimation that school attendance for the first month would be poor as it is usually at the beginning of the school year. The use of school buildings in August cost an additional $1.4 million in air-conditioning repairs.

Meanwhile, Jocz is trying to figure out how he will teach everything he needs to in the time allotted.

“It’s already challenging the way it is, and moving it forward will present more challenges,” Jocz said. “But we’ll figure out how to face this challenge, as usual, and make it work out.”

Student school board member Karen Calderon spoke against the change, then voted for the compromise.

The LA Unified school board decided Tuesday night to start school one week later next year, moving the start date to Aug. 22, then to Aug. 28 the following year.

After passionate debate on both sides, five school board members voted for the change, and two voted against it.

The number of days of instruction remains at 180. But the Thanksgiving break will be reduced next year to three days, instead of the whole week off, as students have had the past four years. Winter break will also be cut, from three weeks to two weeks. Unassigned days, such as for Jewish holidays, will not change.

Overall, it falls short of the initial proposal spearheaded by board member Richard Vladovic to move the start of the school year to after Labor Day, which he has tried four separate times but was out-voted. He seemed satisfied with a compromise of inching toward Labor Day over the next two school years.

But Superintendent Michelle King made it clear that school cannot start after Labor Day because a full semester could not be completed before winter break.

Parents in a previous survey said they wanted a post-Labor Day start.

“The next school year will be August 22 and the subsequent year school will start August 28, which is the week before Labor Day, and the first semester will conclude before winter break,” King said.

Student board member Karen Calderon won some applause from the audience when she explained how her peers didn’t want the calendar to change because it affects their college exams.

“The three-week difference may not seem so large, but to do that before the AP exam will have a negative effect for so many students,” Calderon said. “By changing the start date you are limiting our future and limiting our success, and I am against starting after Labor Day.”

Nevertheless, Calderon voted for the compromise. Her vote is an advisory vote.

The board also voted against concerns and pleas from two labor leaders, Letetsia Fox of the California School Employees Association representing classified employees and Juan Flecha from the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles representing administrators and principals.

“Our simple and clear message on behalf of the vast majority is to tell the board to stick to their initiative and asking to continue the calendar of the last five years,” said Flecha, who represents nearly 3,000 administrators. Their own survey said that 87 percent wanted an August start date and 40 percent wanted no change.

Juan Flecha of AALA spoke against the change.

Fox was concerned that the change in schedule could affect the number of days employees work, as many cannot afford to lose work time.

Daniel Jocz, the 2016 California State Teacher of the Year from Downtown Magnets High School, tweeted out “as someone who has worked hard to build a successful AP program, this is bad news for LAUSD students‬.”

That Twitter note got to board member Monica Garcia, who read it to the other board members and said, “I’m against it and concerned about whatever comes next.” She said that academic gains and increased graduation rates could be due in part to the calendar year starting earlier.

“We have not seen the evidence that we should roll this back,” Garcia said. “We are going to spend money to roll this back and adjust it. I have heard from angry parents to stop changing your mind.”

Garcia pointed out that the calendar was originally changed when many elementary schools in the San Fernando Valley wanted to become charters or affiliated charters to move their start dates earlier in August. Instead, the district changed the calendar.

“Everybody got used to it and it is most aggravating that people are not clear what is happening,” Garcia said. “I am so concerned and I will leave it on the board that they have their families’ interest.”

In past surveys and telephone input from teachers and parents, they said they wanted to start after Labor Day, but they also said they wanted the semester to end before winter break, which can’t both happen because there aren’t enough school days.

Vladovic and board member Scott Schmerelson said parents in their communities and neighborhood councils have asked for the more traditional school start, like they do in Chicago and New York. The board members also said they were concerned about the cost of air-conditioning expenses and energy costs in the hotter earlier start of the school year.

• Read more: Would a later start to the school year really save money?

Board member George McKenna said that he thought children were being robbed of their summers.

“We’re taking away the summer from these kids,” McKenna said. “I’m still in favor of moving it closer to Labor Day. We’re not doing this to the students, but for the students.”

Board President Steve Zimmer was concerned that the compromise does not affect the classified employees and that King address the concerns that the student school board member has about enough counseling and time for AP tests. He appreciated King’s willingness to compromise.

Board member Ref Rodriguez said there needs to be more data if the calendar affects achievement. He voted for the compromise change in the calendar. Monica Ratliff voted against the changes without comment.

Despite temperatures hovering in the 90s for the rest of the week for many LA Unified schools, calls for air-conditioning repairs haven’t gotten out of hand.

Yet a proposal being introduced by three LA Unified School board members next week could change the start of the school year until after Labor Day, and one of the biggest reasons given for that change is because many believe it costs too much to cool the 30,000 classrooms in the summer heat. But is that really the case?

For the past three years when school started in early to mid-August, service repairs for school air-conditioning HVAC units cost more in September than they did in August, according to a report from LA Unified facilities made last year.

For September in both 2014 and 2015 the costs for repairs were about $1.4 million, while the cost for repairs in August were far less: $987,000 in 2014 and $1.2 million in 2015.

And some of the most dangerous heat waves over the past few years have taken place during September, including last year when some schools recorded 112 degrees and in 2014 when outdoor athletic activities were canceled both in September and early October due to triple-digit heat waves.

The facilities report notes that when “more occupants are on campuses this will cause more service calls to be generated.” So, for example, when the school year was first moved to an August start date in 2012, the district experienced its highest costs for service over a six-year period at $4.3 million, while the second-highest year was when school last started in September, which was in 2011.

Another facilities report by the district reported electricity consumption costs in June and August. That report showed that electricity costs rose after the school start was moved to August.

After an intense study and requests for input, the school board in January agreed to approve the calendar for only one year, against the recommendations of Superintendent Michelle King, who wanted a three-year commitment.

In an unofficial poll with more than 750 people responding, LA School Report found that most respondents preferred a more traditional schedule, with school starting after Labor Day. Although many respondents wanted to start the school year later, they didn’t want the fall semester to finish after winter break.

Meanwhile, by the second day of school this week, when temperatures hit 93 in the San Fernando Valley, the district got 304 service call requests, and by Thursday morning 181 of those calls were completed, according to Elvia Perez Cano of Communications and Media Relations for Facilities. There were 1,427 units outstanding that still required some sort of service, which is about the average amount of outstanding calls. (Last year, during a heatwave, 2,600 repair orders were launched.)

When the HVAC units need repair, the district has 160 portable air-conditioning units available to put into classrooms, or they move students to cooler spaces, Cano said. The more than 80 facilities workers will work overtime to fix serious immediate problems, she added.

The district has set aside $1 billion for a Critical Repair Fund, and over the past three years about $300 million has been used for air conditioners. The district uses about 68,000 air-control venting devices, and most of the units are more than 30 years old.

The resolution to change the school start date made by Richard Vladovic, Scott Schmerelson and George McKenna calls for school to start after Labor Day beginning in the 2017-2018 school year. The resolution notes botched phone surveys and other outreach attempts made by former Superintendent Ramon Cortines to get community input, pointing out “the surveys of preferred start dates conducted by staff have not achieved sufficient outreach and consideration of public opinion.”

The debate will occur on Tuesday afternoon at the first school board meeting of the year.

Some of the independent charter schools elected to truncate their winter break by one week, limiting the winter break to two weeks while opting for a longer spring break or an earlier end to the school year. In some cases, the schools voted to come back earlier, or the charter school program agreed to the calendar at the beginning of the year.

It’s another one of the complications of having 211 independent charter schools within the LAUSD system. LAUSD has the largest number of charter schools in the country, and although they are independent, they are regulated and approved by the local school district.

The charter organizations have the autonomy to schedule their school year as they wish but must have the same amount of instruction time, which is regulated by the state. And so, for example. all of the Camino Nuevo charter schools in the district started school today and all the Equitas Academy charter schools will head back to school tomorrow.

About 26 schools start the new year tomorrow, and a handful will begin school on other days later this week.

Most independent charter schools follow the same winter break schedule as the traditional schools and will resume classes next Monday, Jan. 11.

But, the 25 Alliance charter schools will not be going back to school until Jan. 13.

LAUSD will be deciding on a new school calendar for the district early this month. At the next school board meeting, on Jan. 12, results of the surveys and community meetings about the school calendar options will be presented to the board.

As LA Unified studies several academic calendar options while also reaching out for public input, a group of parents has started an online petition, asking the district not to consider the “extreme” option of shortening summer break to five weeks while extending winter break to seven.

An advisory panel is currently studying six different academic calendars and is expected to recommend one to the LA Unified school board to use for the next three academic years. Some of the options have school starting in mid- or early-August, as it has the last few years, while one option has a post-Labor Day start, which the district had before 2012.

The option that prompted the online petition calls for school to begin in early August, include a five-week winter break and not conclude for summer until late June. The district could then potentially add a four-week winter credit recovery session to its schedule.

While the advisory panel has yet to offer any recommendations, Gerardo Loera, principal of Virgil Middle School and a member of the LAUSD Calendar Committee, wrote an article that highlighted many of the beneficial academic aspects of a shortened summer break. The district is also in the throes of a graduation crisis and is leaning heavily on credit recovery options, making the extended winter break a potentially enticing option for the school board.

The plan would “address summer learning loss by shortening the break and reallocating the days to an extended winter break,” Loera wrote. “A four-week summer school and a four-week winter intersession would allow many LAUSD students to experience up to 220 days of instructional time if they attend both 20-day interventions in addition to the 180 day school year.”

The petition, which has already gathered almost 700 signatures, finds several faults with a shortened summer break, and reads, “This proposal is short-sighted in numerous respects.”

The problems the petitions cites include increased childcare costs associated with the extended winter break, lost summer opportunities for students not in need of credit recovery, the excessive summer heat that students will have to suffer through, difficulties in aligning sports schedules with other districts and putting Advanced Placement high school classes on a completely different schedule from other cities and states.

“The proposed plan should be rejected in favor of a more traditional 12 week summer vacation ending in later August, along with a more reasonable 2 week winter break, which is observed by virtually all academic institutions and businesses in the United States,” the petition states. “To alter this longstanding and well-established calendar and practice raises a multitude of difficulties.”

*Corrects proposed break lengths of “extreme” option.

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LAUSD is making another strong push for input from families and employees to see what the school schedule should be for the next three years.

And, the district is providing lots of back-up materials to help inform choices, including a comparison of student test scores in traditional school years versus early school calendars, electricity consumption costs for the summer and comparisons to calendars at nearby school districts and colleges.

At issue is whether school should start after Labor Day (a more traditional calendar) or earlier in August, whether elementary and high schools should have different schedules and whether the semesters should be broken up by the winter break. Parents are also asked if they care how long the winter break should be, two weeks or three.

The school board is planning to adopt a final calendar in January, based on recommendations from the superintendent and feedback from the community.

Online surveys are now available through Dec. 6 for parents and guardians as well as for school employees to help hammer out the calendar through 2019. The surveys are also available in Spanish.

“We are always looking for better ways to foster communication between the district and parents, or schools and parents, which is one of our top goals,” said Daryl Strickland, an district spokesman.  “We will look at the results from this effort and others to determine what parents find useful for creating dialogue.”

In September, the district conducted surveys by phone to more than 600,000 families, and 58,000 people answered five questions. But, there was a glitch when district officials discovered that some people couldn’t complete the survey.

Now, the district acknowledges that due to the time elapsed “respondents might opt for different answers, the survey will be offered to everyone again.” The content of the survey is the same as it was in September, and results of both polls will be shared with the L.A. Unified community, according to the district’s website devoted to the calendar query.

A final round of phone calls will be made Dec. 1 to families who specifically asked to fill out the survey by phone. The district notes that no phone calls will be made over the Thanksgiving break.

Traditionally, the school year started after Labor Day as it does in most parts of the country, ending in late June of the following year. Since early 2000, high school principals have asked the district to consider an “early start” calendar, and 17 high schools and one elementary school successfully piloted the early start model for two years.

The early start schedule allows all high school students to finish the final exams in the first semester before the winter break. Students also have more time to prepare for school and college placement exams. By finishing the school year in early June, students have more time for summer jobs and college program choices.

The comparisons of test scores, starting after Labor Day versus starting in August, show that an uninterrupted semester over the winter break seemed to help scores as well as results on Advanced Placement tests.

Twenty parents and teachers showed up at a community forum last Thursday night at Burroughs Middle School in Hancock Park. That is a robust number compared with the average turnout at community forums held over two weeks that sought input into the search for the next superintendent.

In another “Your Voice Counts” series for community input, the district is asking for suggestions about the school calendar for the next three years. Resuming tonight with a meeting at the White Middle School auditorium in Carson, the process will continue over the next two weeks with meetings in all six of the Local Districts.

District administrators will review the critical components of the LAUSD instructional calendar and the planning and adoption process. They will also receive information about the instructional calendar survey.

In September, Superintendent Ramon Cortines recorded a robo-call to get input on a phone survey, but it was a false start when district officials discovered that some people couldn’t complete the survey.

Questions included whether people wanted the school semesters to continue over the winter break and whether high schools should have different schedules than elementary schools.

An LA Unified spokesperson said the results of the September survey will be shared with the board after the second cycle of surveys have been completed.

In an unofficial poll with more than 750 people responding, LA School Report found that most respondents preferred a more traditional schedule, with school starting after Labor Day.

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Last evening, Superintendent Ramon Cortines sent out a recorded robo-call that notified teachers and parents that the district will be making three attempts over the next four days to get input into the school calendar year. A district advisory committee is reviewing six different plans, including one that could result in only five weeks for summer break and seven weeks for winter break.

“Good evening,” said the robo-call with Cortines introducing himself. “The school district is planning the instructional calendar for the next three years.”

The phone survey promises only five questions. According to Ellen T. Morgan, a district spokeswoman, the questions concern the following topics:

• Start of the school year
• Length of the winter break
• Importance on having elementary and secondary schools on the same calendar
• Finishing the first semester before the winter break
• Accommodation of enrichment and intervention programs

The calls will be made today through Tuesday, Sept. 29 and three attempts will be made. If someone answers the first time, the phone number will not be called again.

So, the first Unassigned Day of the year fell on Sept. 14 when teachers and students had off. That was on the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana.

The next day off is tomorrow, which is Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Then, there’s the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the usual Thursday and Friday holidays for Thanksgiving from Nov. 23 through 27. Yes, this year the school district has off a week for Thanksgiving, probably something to do with a celebration of finding and catching turkeys.

And, the final Unassigned Day falls suspiciously on the Monday after Easter, March 28 next year.

The district isn’t calling those days off for the names of the specific religious holidays, but they know if those days weren’t taken off, there would be a high rate of absenteeism anyway. It costs the schools additional money for substitute teachers and a great loss of money in per-student attendance when there is high absenteeism.

“Days are labeled ‘unassigned’ because of high absenteeism on certain dates,” said Daryl Strickland, a district spokesman. “The District overall has a 180-day school year, spanning August to June.”

And, as one teacher, who recalls not having those Unassigned Days off during a year-round schedule in the past said, “I came to school one day and a third of the teachers were gone and the halls were empty. Then, the prinicpal told me it was Yom Kippur. We might as well have had a day off.”