FISH CREEK, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – There is a renewed state push for an earlier start to school years.
State law prevents public schools from starting classes before September first.
However, for the fourth time in 11 years, Rep. Jim Ott, a Republican from Mequon, is pushing to repeal that law.
Fish Creek Information Center Manager Digger DeGroot tells WLUK summer tourism in Door County would take a major hit if schools were allowed to start before September 1st.
“To lose the high school kids and the school kids who make up a big portion of our workforce earlier, before Labor Day just doesn’t make a lot of sense as far as from a tourism standpoint”
Districts can request to start before September 1st, however, exceptions are only granted for extraordinary reasons.
Brenda Warren is president of Green Bay’s Board of Education.
“We’ve been talking to legislators, our local legislators for a fair number of years about this and feel that September 1st deadline really restricts us in terms of making decisions that are in the best interest of our students”
Warren says one reason to lift the restriction is Advanced Placement testing.
Private schools typically start a week to ten days before public schools, allowing AP students more classroom time to prepare for tests in May. Another reason is schedule flexibility with Labor Day weekend.
“We like to adjust our schedules,” said Warren. “We like the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday first week of school. That helps get kids and teachers eased into it and head into the weekend.”
“After mid-August, things slow down a little bit because kids are getting ready to go back to school, so imagine if they’re going back even earlier,” said DeGroot.
The latest numbers, from 2015, show August was the second most profitable tourism month in Wisconsin, only behind July.
Co-sponsors for the bill must be landed by Friday.
