Haralson County Schools Superintendent Dr. Jerry Bell said that he is keeping an eye on the new legislative session and if legislators decide to set a new mandate as to when public schools should start the new school year annually.

“They have had a calendar committee working to look at school calendars. I guess they want to either set a specific date for 180 school districts to abide by meaning that they start on this date or you can’t start before this date and you can’t end after a certain date,” said bell about possible calendars.

Tourism leaders have lobbied legislators to consider setting a “don’t start before this date” date. They say summers are very important to the tourism industry. Legislators are also reviewing how much it costs school systems to cool schools in the later summer months.

Bell is not excited about a potential mandate and says it should be a local decision:

“They preach to us that they want us to have local control because every system is different. Yet they are trying to take local control away in that aspect. It is something that we are going to keep an eye on and something that we will have discussions with our legislatures about because for us the four day work week as worked well. It has saved us a lot of money. Academics have continued to rise. Not saying that we will always stay with that, but for now it has worked. If you went to a set date, that would interfere. We would have to go back to a five and that puts a financial strain on our school district.”

Bell talks everything Haralson County Schools, every Friday morning with Bo Beck on WKNG King Country.