To the Editor:

Tomorrow the school buses run and our resort still has people checking in for Labor Day.

Both are true.

I testified against the district’s early start in March because I run a resort and because the last week of August matters to businesses like mine more than a week in most other months. A family that starts school before Labor Day usually does not book a Sunday-through-Friday lake trip the week before. That is not politics. It is the reservation book.

The board made a different decision because a late Labor Day pushes the other end of the school calendar into June. That is also real. Teachers and families have a calendar too.

I have been quoted several times saying, “They have a June problem and I have an August problem. Same calendar.” I am writing because I mean the second sentence as much as the first.

The people on the school board are not trying to close resorts. Resort owners are not trying to keep children out of school. There are two ends to the same year and this time the extra week had to land on somebody.

If the state keeps the temporary waiver another year, I hope the district puts the calendar vote on an agenda early enough that businesses and families can plan around it. I also hope resort owners come prepared with numbers rather than adjectives. The school board deserves the same from us that we ask from it.

Tomorrow the week lands on us.

We will still be open.

— Renée Fontaine, Loon Ridge Resort & Golf