Early school start putting heat on other elements

Students in the South Putnam School Corporation boarded big yellow school buses today to start the 2016-17 school year in Putnam County.

Greencastle, Cloverdale and North Putnam will all follow suit next week in what has to be one of the earliest starts to a school year in history.

Think that's early? Schools in Avon and other Indianapolis suburbs and locations went back this year before the calendar even flipped over to August.

Long gone is the school calendar that began the day after Labor Day and ended around Memorial Day.

To get in 180 school days these days -- while offering ample fall, Christmas and spring breaks -- has meant starting school earlier and earlier. Yep, August is the new September.

That's about the only way to get those 180 days in without extending classes past Memorial Day.

And that has begun to impact other things, such as the Indiana State Fair, which opened today, Aug. 5 and runs through Aug. 21.

Dozens of Putnam County 4-H'ers will have projects and animals at the fair. But they will need special dispensation from their school in order to spend weekday time at the state fairgrounds to tend to their exhibits.

Meanwhile, football and marching band practice has started earlier and will mean students most certainly will be performing on some hot, August nights. Thank goodness the days of those bulky wool band uniforms are gone.

Also experiencing a trickle-down effect in this scheduling is the Greencastle Aquatic Center. Historically the summer swim season spanned Memorial Day to Labor Day.

The summer season is now cut to two months and two weeks, and with school starting earlier in recent years, the lifeguard staff -- comprised of high schoolers and a few college-age kids -- can't work once school begins because of classes starting, involvement in sports and the return to their college campuses.

In fact, the city pool had been due to close this Sunday, Aug. 7. But after hearing the weather forecast has the sweltering summer heat continuing into next week, Park Director Rod Weinschenk twisted a few arms, talked like a Dutch uncle and creatively scheduled about five lifeguards as a skeleton crew to keep the pool open another week (see story, Page 1). Hours will be 4-8 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, through Aug. 14.

An admiral effort, for sure, as the grumbling had already begun around town about the pool "closing so early."

Fact is, the pool cannot even be open without a minimum number of lifeguards on hand.

But then again, the pool is still closing in another week. And just a couple short years ago, our hottest temperatures didn't arrive until September.

So what's the answer?

A later start to the school year would certainly help.

Getting that done, however, with the myriad of activities and people that can be affected might not be any easier than getting the weather to cooperate.

But it seems to be something worth looking into -- before we find Putnam County schools starting classes in July.