San Mateo County community colleges consider compressed calendar

The district’s Board of Trustees have had ongoing discussions about its desire to expand access to its programs to working adults and individuals who may need accelerated pacing. Compressing schedules would require the district to activate multiple weekends for courses to meet the minimum requirement of instruction days per academic year, McVean said. 

“My hunch is that there are people who may benefit from the district’s services being offered on Friday, Saturdays and Sundays who otherwise might not enroll, might not be able to avail themselves of our great institution because of the practicalities of their life,” Trustee John Pimentel said. 

For adult learners, shorter semesters ultimately translates into fewer days away from work, fewer days requiring child care, and increases the potential for more meaningful learning in longer class sessions, District Academic Senate President Arielle Smith said. 

The slightly quicker pacing of courses may be an adjustment for students, but the change would not be monumental, and there are associated benefits, Student Trustee Chloe Johnson said. 

“I purposefully took English and math courses over the summer for the accelerated pace because sometimes assignments would slip through the cracks when we had a longer semester,” Johnson said. “I think that this would be really great.” 

A condensed calendar would also allow for the summer term to be more utilized, McVean said. Currently, the summer schedule does not allow for some higher unit classes, but with an extended summer session, those could be available. Or, two shorter sessions for fewer unit classes could occur during the summer, offering students the ability to progress in their degrees, McVean said. 

The implementation of a condensed calendar would be a feat, taking nearly four years to fully roll out if the board were to decide to move forward with such a shift, McVean said. 

The board expressed interest in moving along with studying this effort, while also directing district staff to consider the flexibility and experimentation it can engage in with the current schedule available. 

District staff will likely return with a formal recommendation on a transition to a condensed calendar next spring, McVean said, which would then “start the clock on four years” of implementation. This would include engaging with the public and staff, getting state and federal approvals, negotiations with unions to review contracts, technical changes, professional development, marketing and the final rollout. 

In other business, district staff updated the board on two grants that it applied for to fund student housing. The district received a $56 million award from the state for the proposed housing at the College of San Mateo, but was not awarded the grant for student housing at Skyline College. 

The district plans to submit a revised application for the Skyline proposal for future consideration by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, as well as an application for student housing at Cañada College. These applications will be due June 2026.