State College school board approved the 2022-23 calendar. Here’s how it will affect the Grange Fair
The 2022-2023 State College Area School District academic year will start Tuesday, Aug. 23, and end on Friday, June 2, after months of discussion about how the calendar intersects with Grange Fair.
The approved calendar will allow students to participate in the Grange Fair, with both Monday and Friday off during the first week of school. The fair is scheduled to run Aug. 19-27.
The board first voted 4-4 on the administration’s proposed calendar that started Monday, Aug. 22, with Peter Buck, Carline Crevecoeur, Laurel Zydney and Daniel Duffy voting no. Jackie Huff was absent.
The board then voted on an alternative calendar proposed at the Jan. 10 meeting, which moved the start of school one day later due to the Grange Fair. The vote was 6-2 with Zydney and Amy Bader, the board’s vice president voting no.
Zydney voted no on principle, saying the school year should start only one week before labor day rather than two. Bader favored the administration’s originally proposed calendar.
Crevecoeur supported the changed calendar, believing that students could benefit from more time with their families.
“We need to see our children as holistic individuals and see that they may get more out of family time than in a classroom,” Crevecoeur said.
In recent years, the district has aligned its calendar with Penn State’s, board president Amy Concepcion said.
“We heard from parents that it’s incredibly difficult to get any kind of child care when there’s a week when Penn State has started and school has not started,” Concepcion said.
Before the vote the board heard a comment from Jason Coopey, an owner of Way Fruit Farm, supporting a calendar that included Monday and Friday off to allow students to participate in the Grange Fair.
“We truly appreciate the diligence, open-mindedness, patience and spirit of compromise from all involved,” Coopey said in a Facebook post after the decision.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 4:04 PM.