December 2, 2005

Dear Parents,

We are pleased to be able to share with you the Manhattan Beach Unified School District calendars for the upcoming three school years - 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009. Pending approval from the Board of Trustees at the December 7, 2005 board meeting, the calendars will become official, however, we would like to share the calendars with you as quickly as possible so that you can make plans as necessary for this coming summer and succeeding years. The calendars were negotiated by a committee of elementary, middle and high school staff through a mandated collective bargaining process. A vote took place on Wednesday, November 16, 2005, during which the calendars were approved by both our classified and certificated employee associations.

When developing the calendars, the calendar committee considered the following criteria:

Maximizing instructional time by:

Eliminating minimum days before breaks/long weekends

Providing as many full uninterrupted weeks as possible

Eliminating school days that tend to have unusually high absentee rates

Acknowledging community input by:

Creating a week-long recess at Thanksgiving

Creating a week-long recess in February

Recognizing holidays that are observed in the community

Maximizing average daily attendance (ADA) by:

Eliminating minimum days before breaks/long weekends

Recognizing family and traditional elements (religious requests, travel time at holidays, etc.)

Eliminating some single non-student days and combining into longer breaks (two Monday President days, the previously observed MCHS semester break in February, random day off on March 17th this year, etc.)

Please note that the first day of school for all students occurs one week earlier, and falls on Wednesday, August 30, 2006. Additional changes of note include a full week of vacation during the week of Thanksgiving, and a mid-winter break during the third week of February. Once approved by the Board of Trustees, the calendars will be posted on the district website www.mbusd.org under “Quick Links” in the top left hand corner of the page.

As always, we are thankful for our strong parent and community support. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and we wish you a joyous holiday season.

Sincerely,

Gwen E. Gross, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools .