On Monday, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic calendars. The proposed calendar was earlier promoted as Calendar Option A in a district-wide vote sent to staff, parents, students and other community members, where it was the most popular choice.
According to the approved calendar, the 2024-25 school year will start on Wednesday, Aug. 14 and include a holiday for Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5. Monday, Nov. 4 will remain a school day.
Additionally, the school year will feature no early release days due to low attendance and unproductivity, as well as to ease transportation burdens. Therefore, the calendar holds an additional 495 minutes which can be used in the event of unexpected closures.
“The school year never goes exactly as planned,” Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Dr. Kristen Eichel said. “It gives us some options if there is bad weather and we need to close. While we do have bad weather days built into the calendar, the additional minutes allow us to have the option to keep our bad weather days unused.”
The new calendar includes more work days for teachers. Continuing for the upcoming year, teachers will be allowed to work remotely on workdays.
“If they can do everything they need to do from home because they’ve already spent countless hours in their room setting up, we’ve allowed them to do that,” Dr. Eichel said. “If they want to come up to their room for an hour or two to finish things up and then go back home, they can do that. That has been received fabulously.”
Eichel introduced new executive director of human resources Karen Duke.
“I am excited to be here and I look forward to serving our students, staff, parents and community,” Duke said.
Board Project Manager Sid Grant presented a mockup and details of the new playgrounds to be built in 10 elementary schools with Lea Park & Play. The new structures will include shade coverings and replace wood chips with DuraPlay Rubber Safety Surfacing. Construction is projected to begin in April and end by this fall.
“We started working with them to get the absolute best price we possibly could and design playsets that are actually going to be a lot of fun for our students to enjoy,” Grant said. “If I would like to play on it, it has got to be a great set.”
The Board was honored for Board Appreciation Month by student leaders. With posters celebrating them from every school adorned around the room, the trustees were presented certificates under the theme “locally elected, community connected.”
Trustees were briefed on human resources, budget and special education updates as well.
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