BY KEVIN PEARSON
STAFF WRITER [email protected]
Classes will begin Aug. 20 under a new 2012-13 academic calendar finalized by the Hemet school board on Tuesday night.
The start date was one of two the board selected from. Board members said they preferred the earlier start date as opposed to a Sept. 4 start date.
While acknowledging that a September start would save summer utility costs, the board said it chose the August start because it was closer to when neighboring districts San Jacinto and Temecula begin.
Classes will end May 31, 2013. Students will get two weeks off in the winter and a week in November, February and April.
Another factor was the worry about fall sports already being underway by the start of September classes.
“I like what we’ve been doing,” board member Joe Wokcik said. “There needs to be some synergy between districts.”
The board in January shot down a staff proposal that would have started classes on August 14 and given students a three-week break over the winter holiday. The board strongly opposed that option for a variety of reasons, including the break being too long, cutting into summer vacations and increased utility costs to cool classrooms in mid-August.
San Jacinto and Temecula are on the schedule Hemet turned down in January.