This year, Los Angeles Unified School District schools all had varying starting dates. Some began in August and some, including Carson High School, began like usual in early September. But effective next year, Carson will be joining those other schools in starting the school year at an earlier date.
         It has been decided by Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines and the Los Angeles Unified School District School Board that Carson High will open its gates for the 2011-2011 School Year on August 15, 2011. The last day of that school year will be on June 1, 2012.
     “The Superintendent believes that, and there’s research to back it up, that it is better to start school earlier so that the first semester will end Christmas Break, because that way that it is, kids forget things in their classes over the three weeks of Christmas Break.
    “This way, they’ll be finished with the semester and they’ll be starting their next semester when they come back. It won’t be such a big disruption towards the end of the semester. It will also move everything forward so that testing will be later in the school year,” explained Principal Ken Kenner.
     With school starting earlier and testing dates at the end of the school year, US History Teacher Merri Weir is ecstatic towards the change: “I am very excited about the early start. I’ve never understood why we have five to six, sometimes even seven, weeks of school after State Testing.”
       In addition, Weir expressed her anticipated results of the early start: “It won’t affect [the way I teach] at all. It’s the same amount of time with the mere fact that there are not five to seven weeks of lag time after state testing… [The early start] just allows us to give our students more time to prepare for state testing and Advanced Placement testing because other school and other programs in the United States have been doing this forever and they are having greater success.”
     Unfortunately, the new start will shorten this first year’s Summer Vacation. But according to Assistant Principal Richard Therras, it’s going to be a price worth paying for: “I think the first year will be tough because we will have a shorten Summer Break but after that, it should be pretty good because we’ll all have all of our work done end of Holiday Break and we won’t have to worry about finishing up first semester when we come back.”
     There have also been talks of how an earlier start means hotter weather for the Students to learn in.
      Fortunately though, Carson’s Air Conditioning System is much better than its Heating system. Also, those that have already scheduled vacations in late august will have to reschedule in order to accommodate the new change. In addition, Summer Programs and Internships have also been expected to accommodate the new change since a large number of its participants are from LAUSD.
     But even with a couple of setbacks and a shorter summer, a huge percentage of the school sees this new change as a new and better opportunity for Carson High School. “I think that overall, the idea that we’re starting earlier [next year] will be good for students,” Kenner commented.