The picture becomes clear when the focus is sharpened. And the focus of school policy ought to be on the scholastic advancement of our students.

The issue of scholastics, and how the school calendar can affect it, is up for discussion tomorrow at the Board of Education meeting on Kaua'i. That's when the board is set vote on whether to change the dates of the regular school session, starting with the 2009-10 academic year.

The state's "unified public school calendar" was instituted three years ago, giving students about six weeks of summer vacation, with breaks in the fall, at Christmas and in the spring.

Now the Department of Education administration has proposed an amended schedule, shortening Christmas and spring breaks to elongate the summer hiatus. That proposal offers some clear academic advantages over the existing schedule.

Students would be better prepared for their assessment tests, and have more opportunities for learning over the summer than what the current calendar allows. Clearly, a change in course is needed, given its shortcomings.

In addition to the initial complaints about the current calendar's inconvenience — juggling family schedules to accommodate the shortened summer break and additional mid-session vacations — the schedule posed some hurdles for student achievement.

Among them: The abbreviated summer was too short for conventional half-day summer-school courses for middle- and high-schoolers. And because the truncated summer sessions have to be wedged in almost immediately after school lets out in June, it became difficult to find teachers willing to take the extra job without a breather in between.

In addition, the shortened instructional period during the spring session made it difficult for students returning from spring break to prepare for the state assessment tests required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

None of these difficulties are helpful to students. Some need remedial work and credits to catch up with their grade-level cohort; some more-advanced students want to accelerate their graduation, or even finish the regular school year in time to enroll in college summer classes.

Judging from the struggles by schools to hit marks set by the No Child law and other measures of academic success, the students need more chances to boost academic success, not fewer.

Maggie Cox, the school board member leading the board's review of the proposal, said the proposals will be evaluated according to how the school calendar would benefit students, rather than how it serves the convenience of adults. Superintendent Pat Hamamoto agrees.

"Our mission and our priority is always to improve student achievement," she said. "We want to provide opportunities for our kids to succeed."

That is exactly the right approach. When hundreds of schools follow the same calendar, it's impossible to satisfy everyone's personal preferences. The calendar that offers the most academic advantages to public school students is the one to choose.