East Penn Board Votes on 2012-2013 School Calendar Tonight

The East Penn Board of School Directors will vote on the 2012-2013 school calendar at tonight’s board meeting, deciding if East Penn youngsters will join the growing ranks of Lehigh County public school students heading back to class before Labor Day.

The East Penn School District's working 2012-2013 calendar . The district's apparent desire to push the start of the school year back into August has met with mixed reviews during the public comment portion of recent school board meetings, with parents complaining they should have been given more notice about such a signifcant calendar change.

A recurrent complaint among parents has been that they have already put in for vacation time at work and family travel plans would be upset by an August start date. In addition, those against the August start also say it will cause issues with summer employment for high school students.

Patch attempted to take the pulse of the East Penn community on the school calendar topic, with a Jan. 20 online poll that asks

Initially, the , with 150 Patch users responding to the poll between Jan. 20 and Jan. 23, and 95 respondents, or 63 percent, selecting the answer, “Yes.” At that time, 36 percent of those who took part in the online poll (55 respondents) chose “No” as their answer.

Since then another 115 Patch users have answered the school calendar question, and the tide seems to have turned. At the time of this writing, more than half of the 265 poll respondents (58 percent/154 users) favored a post-Labor Day return to school. Forty-one percent or 111 respondents selected the “Yes” answer, meaning they think that East Penn students should head back to class in August.

The poll results are not scientific.

The East Penn Board of School Directors meets on Monday, Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the .