Opponents of the proposed calendar have been getting more vocal with the announcement of the first public hearing on the issue.

One of the most vocal opponents has been Jennifer Hanson, a mother of three who started a petition on Change.org to oppose the proposed calendar.

The petition was started Aug. 20 and has since gained over 350 signatures. Hanson said this is a comparable number to the 303 community members who were surveyed in St. Paul-based Springsted Inc.’s community assessment, which asked about the proposed calendar, among other school-related questions.

Hanson said she and many other parents were unpleasantly surprised by the survey. She said she feels parents have a bigger stake in this than the entire community, though parents are not the deciding factor. She stressed the biggest impact is to people with families.

Sixty-nine of the 303 people surveyed were parents. While Hanson did get a call from Springsted Inc. with the survey, she knows many parents who did not.

She said the message it sent to the community is that the school board is “listening, but not really.”

Hanson said many parents won’t believe what the school board is saying without concrete proof. She mentioned Sumner Elementary School in Austin has been brought up frequently, but explained Sumner’s calendar is different from the proposed calendar for Albert Lea.

Hanson said one of the questions in Springsted Inc.’s survey mentioned a school in Rochester that has had a “balanced” calendar for 19 years. She questioned that if the proposed calendar has benefits, why all of Rochester’s schools or all of Austin’s schools haven’t switched.

Other community members have these same concerns. Tom Jones, a insurance agent and trophy maker, and his wife, Nancy, have two third-graders in the school district. Jones has been very vocal about his position on the proposed calendar.

On April 26, Jones wrote a guest column in the Tribune with many questions he has about the proposed calendar. Jones said none of those questions has been really answered as of Wednesday.

Jones also brought up that the school board hasn’t presented any concrete facts to support the calendar change, and explained he has done research himself that has come up inconclusive.

Students in year-round schools and traditional schools had about the same amount of improvement in math and reading test scores, according to a 2007 study by Paul von Hippel, a sociologist at Ohio State University.

Likewise, little evidence was found that year-round calendars benefit students by breaking the year up into more frequent, shorter breaks, according to a 2007 study by Steven McMullen of Calvin College and Kathryn Rouse of Elon University.

Jones said there are many other studies that show similar results, though the school has just said students in a “balanced” calendar do better than students in traditional schools.

Nancy Jones, a teacher in Austin, explained that Sumner Elementary School’s success with the 45/15 model is not just because of the new calendar — during their three-week breaks, one to two of those weeks are used for remediation. She also said class sizes are smaller.

Tom Jones also brought up the issue of child care and the increase in cost during the breaks in October and March.

Other concerns Jones brought up were sports, family vacation and the value of summer to childhood.

For student athletes, the breaks in October and March fall around tournament times for some sports. He added that for some sports, such as track, three or more weeks of the season would occur after school has ended.

Another thing Jones brought up was the length of summer break itself. As it stands, the current summer break is about 12 weeks long. With the proposed calendar, summer break would be 10 to 11 weeks long, depending on how many snow make-up days are needed. Jones said the upheaval for five days doesn’t make sense.

Jones, like many other opponents of the proposed calendar, said August is an important time for families. He explained many families, including his own, take vacations during August. He said many students have jobs during the summer and losing three weeks of pay could affect students trying to save for college. He noted that days are long in summer, giving children extra time to be outside and research has shown play is essential for child development.

While some community members are very vocal about their opposition to the proposed calendar, some parents are not.

Tony and Sonjia Hill, owners of Hill’s Gardens, are not looking to be boisterous about opposing the calendar but have their own personal reasons for being against it.

Like many other parents, the Hills — who have a second-grader, fifth-grader and seventh-grader — said August is a time when they get to spend time with their children and their children learn valuable life lessons helping with their business.

Tony Hill specifically mentioned his family gets one vacation a year, and August works best for them to take it.

Sonjia Hill said on the business aspect, Hill’s Gardens hires many high school students and those opportunities would be lost if students start school in the middle of August.

Many family plan are already built around the traditional calendar and changing it disrupts everyone, Tony Hill said.

Disruption of family lifestyles is a common trend among most of the opposition based on the more vocal members of the community and comments on social media and Hanson’s online petition.

Another commonality among the opposition is people feel like their voices are not being heard, but with the public hearings approaching, Jones hopes the elected officials will listen to what the people have to say.

“We all need to be heard,” Sonjia Hill said.

The first public hearing will be at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Albert Lea High School commons. Jones pointed out that the district has activities that could affect attendance at the hearing. Sibley Elementary School is holding a back-to-school picnic for students and parents from 5 to 7 p.m., and there is a varsity volleyball game at 7:15 p.m. at Albert Lea High School.

Sibley Principal Ross Williams noted the three hearings, adding that people can attend at least one regardless of schedule conflicts.