During the meeting, Gina Peddy, executive director of curriculum and instruction, said several factors were taken into consideration when the campus calendar committee and district advisory committee discussed options for the 2023-24 academic calendar. These factors included consistency and balance in the amount of instruction days in each semester, built in professional development days for staff and ending the school year prior to Memorial Day. Other calendar planning considerations were to ensure the state required 187 contract days for staff and the minimum of 75,600 student instructional minutes.
The campus calendar committee had campus principals, teachers, athletic directors, fine arts staff and district parents, Peddy said.
The calendar draft has 173 days of student instructional time. This is split between 85 days for the fall semester and 88 days for the spring semester. In 2022-23’s academic calendar, the fall semester had 81 days with the spring semester consisting of 92 days.
Peddy said the committee wanted more equal instruction days between the semesters during the next school year.
“Overwhelmingly, [the committee] wanted the proposals in front of the [board],” Peddy said.
Another change from this year’s academic calendar was moving the early-release days for beginning-of-year testing for elementary students. Elementary school teachers on the committee preferred to have the early-release days be moved to after Labor Day. Peddy said this is so students and teachers are more prepared for the testing.
The proposed calendar has the first day of school Aug. 15, 2023. Students will have Sept. 4 off for Labor Day and a long weekend Oct. 6-9, which includes Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 9.
Staff and students will have a week off in the fall semester for Thanksgiving break with the winter holiday beginning Dec. 22 and students returning to school Jan. 9, 2024. Spring break is slated to take place March 11-15. The calendar accounts for two possible bad-weather makeup days on March 29 and April 12.
In the proposed calendar, the last day of school is May 23 with high school graduation set for May 25.
Peddy said the board will discuss the calendar again before considering approval at its Dec. 12 meeting.
Below is the proposed 2023-24 academic calendar.
