Board Vice-President Coby Pizzotti said he heard from many individuals that they were displeased with only two options to choose from and were not given more choices than what was offered for the new calendar school year. Photo by Angela Underwood

WEST SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - If you don't like something, change it.

Washington Unified School District (WUSD) proposes to do just that with the 2025-26 calendar year. However, some say it should stay the same.

At the last school board meeting on May 7, Interim Superintendent of Human Resources Farah Ubaidullah presented the school board trustees and Superintendent Edith Hildreth with two choices.

Option A has a two-week winter and spring break with 180 school days beginning Aug. 6 and ending June 4, equating to 88 days in the first semester and 92 in the second semester.

Option B entails a three-week winter break and one-week spring break, including the same amount of school days, start and end dates, and semester length.  Staying the same, which includes a two-week winter break and one-week spring break, is not an option.

Ubaidullah pointed out that both A and B options meet the California-mandated Physical Educational (PE) minute requirement for both semesters. Additionally, priorities that the committee considered were part of creating both options. Priorities included meet state instructional minute requirements, align to state and federal holidays, meet Civil Service Employee Association and West Sacramento Teachers Association contractual requirements, ensure River City High and Yolo High School's finals are before winter break, align transitional kindergarten to fifth-grade parent conferences to the first-trimester grading window and develop October break with an extended four-day weekend.

Washington Unified School District Board Trustee Sarah Kirby Gonzalez shared her concerns with the Calendar Committee not having an option for the yearly schedule to remain the same. Photo by Angela Underwood

According to Ubaidullah, start and end dates were important but not a priority. The "diverse committee" shared concerns about not having enough working days in June.

"All those concerns are valid and important, so we wanted to ensure that we were meeting everyone's concerns," Ubaidullah said. "We were trying to put together a calendar that meets all those requirements and accommodates all the students, staff and families."

Calendars and changes are "hot-button issues," according to Board Trustee Sarah Kirby Gonzalez. Both Kirby-Gonzalez and Trustee and Vice-President Coby Pizzotti said many shared concerns with the proposed schedule's lack of the option to stay the same.

Kirby-Gonzalez said it would be option A if she had to choose but "had there been an option to stay the same," her decision might be different. 

"If between now and the next time you come to us, there is an option to end a week earlier and take out that spring break being two weeks, then I would be interested to see that otherwise option A makes sense," Kirby Gonzalez said.

Ubaidullah said the committee recommends that Option A be approved at a future board meeting.

"It is one of the best options we have thus far recommended or asked for approval because it meets the requirement of the 88 PE instructional days as well as all of the requirements we have for staff and it also addresses some of the areas we needed to have breaks," Ubaidullah said, adding the June 4 end date is so staff and students can have a "robust week."

Pizzotti disagreed.

"You made a comment about a robust work week into June; I will say there is not a lot of teaching going on in the last week of June; there is very little, in fact," Pizzotti said, adding the last couple of weeks of school is about transition, not education. "You're not doing long division and practicing that."

Pizzotti also expressed concern about how PE semester hours could be slotted for just one semester rather than throughout the year based on grade.

"I remember going to PE every single day during my high school career from freshmen to senior year; it just wasn't an option to do it all truncated into one area," Pizzotti said.

The Washington Unified Calander Committee must return to the school board officials for approval.