Calendar conundrum continues

According to MPR, our two calendar conundrum may be coming to an end, but not in the way favored by educators:

A Minnesota House panel has rejected a bill to allow school districts the choice of starting classes before Labor Day for the next two school years. Labor Day falls late this year and in 2010.

School districts won't be able to start classes until Sept. 8 this year and Sept. 7 in 2010.

Though it is certainly discouraging news, the issue is by no means a dead one, according to SEE's Brad Lundell:

What the prospects for the bill are at this point is anyone's guess. It could be amended into the omnibus K-12 policy or finance bills in the House or Senate, but if it gets in, there will certainly be attempts to pull it back out again. What this probably does, however, is put a kabosh on districts that we trying to plan one calendar with a pre-Labor Day start. Districts can still plan two calendars and wait for the end of the legislative session to see what happens with this bill, but I wouldn't bet the farm (or the school bus) on a pre-Labor Day start.

In other words, it's not over yet but it doesn't look good. Luckily for us we didn't bet the farm on an early start and already have the two calendars. We just don't know which one to use...yet.