LAUSD To Attempt Calendar Phone Survey A Second Time

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — School district officials are considering redoing a telephone survey after technical glitches complicated an attempt to determine parents' and employees' opinions about the academic calendar.

The Los Angeles Unified School District survey sought feedback on when the school year should start, how long winter break should last and how important it is to have the same days off for elementary and secondary schools. The district also wanted to know how people feel about having the first semester finish before winter break and about the timing of enrichment and intervention programs.

An LAUSD advisory committee is reportedly weighing options for six plans for altering the school year, including one that would see summer vacation cut down to five weeks while increasing the winter break to seven weeks, according to Los Angeles School Report.

Calls went out to 550,000 households, including both parents and employees. The automated phone system made the first attempt Friday night, and then tried again on Saturday if it had collected no information.

But the system's software is designed to pause if there is noise on the receiving end. And background noise, apparently, was enough to derail the effort.

In all, the phone system collected 58,000 responses, but the district also received about 50 complaints, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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