School board approves calendar for 2007-08

And the winning numbers are 11, 2 and 1.

That will be the configuration of the vacations that make up the Douglas County calendar for the 2007-08 school year " 11 weeks summer vacation, two weeks off at Christmas break and one week off at spring break.

After four months in the planning stages, many educators came to the school board meeting Tuesday night to make 11th hour pleas and a dozen suggestions for what they considered to be ideal calendars.

In what they said was a difficult decision, members of the school board voted 5-2 in favor of one calendar for both elementary and secondary schools. The school year is set to start on the fourth Monday in August for secondary with elementary schools starting a few days earlier. This calendar was approved for a period of five years.

Board member Connie Wennhold said what was more important for students was to find a way to bring them in for more than 180 days a year to bring them up in their math and reading.

"That will benefit kids more than reshuffling their calendar around for different reasons," Wennhold said. "We should make it a priority for our district to provide more seat time for the kids."

Also on the agenda was the election of new officers for the 2007 school board: John Louritt, president; Connie Wennhold, vice president and Cynthia Trigg, clerk.