Wood County Superintendent Will Hosaflook speaks during the Wood County Board of Education virtual meeting Tuesday evening. (Screen Capture)

PARKERSBURG — In the decision of the 2021-2022 academic calendar for Wood County Schools, the Wood County Board of Education voted in a 4-1 decision to use calendar A during the last board meeting of 2020 on Tuesday evening.

With calendar A, the calendar will look similar to the calendar that Wood County Schools currently uses, by starting the new school year around the normal time in the middle of August, Aug. 19 (Thursday), and will end before Memorial Day (May. 27) with high school graduations on the weekend of May 20.

The calendar will also have a full Christmas Break, as well as Thanksgiving and spring break. Under the other proposals, calendars B and C Thanksgiving break would only get three days off and there would be no spring break in either.

According to Wood County Schools Superintendent Will Hosaflook, while schedules are due state-wide in May and only five schools in the state have turned in their calendars so far by deciding on a calendar early, it will allow the families of Wood County students to plan their vacations around school.

“After many conversations with stakeholders over the last two years, two suggestions were always prevalent. One, please take two-hour delays out of the calendar and two, please recommend a calendar before the new year. By doing this, families can now plan for trips, vacations, etc., without sacrificing school attendance and in-person instruction,” Hosaflook said.

Hosaflook also gave out the survey numbers of the community regarding which calendar they would prefer, A total of 57 percent voted for calendar A, 16.6 percent for calendar B, and 26.4 percent for calendar C. Calendar C would start after Labor Day (Sept. 7) and end right before Memorial Day with only one week off for Christmas, three days for Thanksgiving and no spring break. The calendar would also have three months in the summer with no school (June, July and August).

A calendar similar to C has been pushed by the delegates at the state level, but Board President Justin Raber said that while the idea is good in practice, the long layoff in the summer would do more harm for Wood County students than good.

“The more important aspect is, we also need to look at a major issue of summer learning loss for students. So if the students are out of school for June, July and August, that’s three months that they’re out of school. Summer learning loss is a huge issue in retention,” Raber said. “So when I look at calendar C option, especially coming out of a pandemic this year, not only are we dealing with the ramification this past school year that we’re currently in, but also what additional learning loss can there be by looking at a calendar such as calendar C?”.

It was also announced that the board will be holding a meeting on Jan. 16, 2021, to review Hosaflook, as his contract is up for renewal in 2021. He was originally hired with a three-year contract in 2018. The board can offer a superintendent a one, two, three or four-year contract, but can not offer a contract that lasts more than four years, according to Raber.