Sanitaria Springs: School Related Matters

This page provides a summary of the school system pertaining to the fictional Sanitaria Springs and the surrounding area and is intended to be a framework for authors to help them maintain continuity with other stories in the canon. Although the page is useful for non-US authors and readers in providing a broad outline of the schools system in the USA, it is not comprehensive. It should be noted that the school system is not uniform across the USA. It is under the control of local district boards operating under the laws and policies of the relevant State. As an example in some areas the Fall semester is deemed to include the period until after examinations are held in January and in others it ends at the Christmas break. Further information can be found on the Wikipedia site: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States, and for a real life school in the Sanitaria Springs area: Chenango Valley Schools site: https://www.cvcsd.stier.org/. For those wanting to compare the English system, the following Wikipedia site provides a comprehensive summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_England

School Calendar

School Years run from 1st September to 31 August divided into two terms (semesters) :

• Fall: First Wednesday after Labor Day to last Friday in January.
• Winter/Spring: First weekday after Fall semester ends to fourth Thursday in June.
• Note that there is no break between the two semesters.

Additional and remedial classes may be held in the summer break, and some other activities (e.g. sports) may commence before term officially starts.

School is not in session for the following holidays:

• Labor Day: first Monday in September.
• Columbus Day: second Monday in October.
• Veterans Day: weekday nearest November 11th.
• Thanksgiving: fourth Thursday in November and the Wednesday and Friday either side.
• Christmas Break: Christmas Eve (December 24) to January 1st.
• Martin Luther King Day: third Monday in January.
• Mid-term recess: third Friday in February and following Monday.
• Spring (Easter) recess: the week before Easter Sunday if the preceding Monday falls in April, otherwise the week after Easter Sunday.
• Memorial Day: last Monday in May and preceding Friday.

In addition there are three Conference Days: Tuesday after Labor Day, first Friday in October and second Friday in March. These are used for staff training, parent-teacher conferences and similar matters.

Other Dates

• Marking periods: The two semesters are each divided into two quarters of ten weeks. These are further divided into five week periods. Marking periods normally end on a Friday.
• Regents Exams: These are examinations in specific subjects required for graduation from High School in New York State. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_Examinations). They are held during last full week in January and last two weeks of Winter/Spring Semester. There may be a further day allocated in the first week of June.
• Homecoming: This a day or weekend nominated for alumni to visit the school. Events usually include a fooball game against a neighboring school, which the home team are expecting to win, followed by a dance for current students. Scheduling an easy-win game means the date is somewhat flexible. For these purposes the date of the game can be set as the Friday of the last week of September or Friday of either of the first two weeks of October.

Attendance

7.40am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday

Teaching periods are forty minutes with an additional three minutes allowed for moving between classrooms. Lunch periods are thirty minutes and sittings are staggered by grade. For more detailed information, see the Chenango Valley website under 'Bell Schedule'.

Year Grades

Admission can be at any time of the year but the beginning of a semester is the preferred option. Grade (year) allocation is based on the age of the pupil at September 1st in each year. (This criteria may vary from district to district, or be dictated by the State) Normally progression to the next grade occurs at the start of the each school year. However grades may be skipped/accelerated for bright students or may be held back in appropriate circumstances. Courses are modular and acceptance for classes for a module may be dependant on completion of earlier modules. This may mean that students nominally in different grades may mix if their progress in a particular subject warrants it. Timetabled gym classes may have students from more than one grade, although this may be more for the purposes of adding flexibility to the schedule than students ability. Advanced (AP) classes may be taken in the last two High School grades that earn introductory level college credits reducing the number of basic classes required to be taken at university or college.

* assumes no gap year taken

Note on Further Education: Full Bachelor Degree courses are normally four years and are studied at a university institution, eg: State University of New York (SUNY) Albany or SUNY Binghamton (public), Renssalear Polytechnic Institute or Cornell University (private). Associate degrees are usually two years and can be studied at local Community Colleges. For Sanitaria Springs this would be at SUNY Broome. An Associate degree can be converted to a Full degree by a further two years study at a university institution. College admission may be in September or January, depending on the institution as are the college's terms (semesters/trimesters etc). Please refer to the institution's website.

Extra-Curricular Activities/Sports

Extra-curricular activities take place after classes finish for the day. As well as organized sport, schools can be expected to offer a range of activities and clubs, such as, drama, chess, GSA, art club, mock trail and debating, student council.

Sports seasons in Sanitaria Springs area schools for these purposes are as below. This is similar to the real-life provision to be found on the Chenango Valley site above. Some sports may start the Fall season in August before school officially commences. Note that the timetabled curriculum will include gym classes when sports may be played at any time of the year that are also offered seasonally as extra-curricular activities as below.

The complier of this page acknowledges that errors will have occurred. Please forward details of errors identified or matters for development or improvement to dabeagle@dabeagle.com in the first instance.

Updated May 5, 2019