001we'll move on to 6.1 uh the adoption of the 2025 2026 District calendar very good so Mr poke is coming to present this and members of the team I think Mr Spradlin is joining also for this thank you and I just want to share by way of introduction uh how much I appreciate that this 2025 26 Calendar I I want to share four things in brief introduction one it is the result of collaboration and you will hear the names of those who've served on the calendar committee and I just want to thank that team there is never anything easy about developing a school calendar because whatever adjustment is made we uh most likely will um result in someone not being thrilled and um and yet through collaboration we're bringing a calendar that represents folks on
002the ground and as well as the needs of our parents students parents and family I am delighted to share that this calendar represents increased instructional minutes to our critical Mission particularly at elementary school so that is our critical mission is teaching and learning and student achievement and growth we have more minutes with a rep pre presentation of this calendar thirdly something I've been seeking uh in the name of our parents and families is that this calendar aligns for the most part elementary middle and high school some of the uh parents that I checked in with tonight and others all the time might have students across the levels and it's really hard when some are in and some are out of school so with this work we're bringing a much more aligned for the days of
003the school year and the days off fourthly I know it was above 70 Dees I wasn't out there today but I heard it was fabulous and so today's probably not the day you're thinking about it but we are always thinking about the cushion that will protect us from having to make up days and I'm proud to share this evening members that the cushion is even deeper for this next year calendar with the sincere hope that if we have a cold winner a tough winner we will be okay because the days will be built in of course we never know that for sure but we are hopeful so with that Mr pul and Mr Spradlin are ready to walk us through the calendar if it sounds all right uh before we get started I just want
004to want to say thank you to our calendar committee members uh Monica ducher learning coach at Hillcrest uh Laura Leonard teacher at Liberty Memorial Marsha Riggins teacher at LVS uh Emerson hos Zales representing the Lea Josh Spradlin uh teacher at l lmcms u Maria engri uh from ESC representing classified staff Greg Farley assistant principal at Lawrence High Janna Craig hair at ESC Megan erson uh James pulk uh JC Roberson and Kristen Ryan at ESC that's who made up our committee um we met five times uh starting in uh December of uh last year um and uh we are excited to put the calendar for you forward uh to you tonight um as we worked through this as a committee um the multiple variations uh that we did um this was by far I think the
005one we were most excited about across the board um bringing those things that Dr Swift kind of highlighted um with that aligned prek through 12 um Vision um with the only ex exceptions being um conference days uh we have those seniors getting out early in May next year those increased instructional hours um we're also really excited um that uh we have those snow day cushions we also I'm calling them purposeful pauses throughout the school year but one of our missions was to provide um more frequent breaks in our school year for staff and families um to not only uh take a break from students from school but our staff also receiving uh teacher Readiness and professional Lear learning throughout the school year um it's a longer winter break we no longer come back on a
006Friday and then have to take two days off to come back on a Monday so we'd have that through January 2nd of 2026 um we're also looking at moving conferences from March into February um which will give more timely feedback especially for our secondary students um as we discussed it at negotiations on Thursday what am I forget um weather days yeah so um one of the things that uh we obviously are living right now are those uh instructional days lost to inclement weather and so we're really excited that we're going to be building an even larger cushion into next year um so that we can withstand even more um and that goes not only uh increasing our instructional minutes um it also goes hand inand with adding in inclement weather days throughout the year so
007we feel really confident with where we are there and how that's going to continue to support this so hopefully we don't have to talk about those inclement weather days much more after this um I would I would add that um and James mentioned uh the kind of purposeful pauses um one of the goals that we've had from negotiations but also in calendar is trying to have a calendar in which uh you don't have those stretches where it's six seven eight weeks without any sort of Break um uh in just in terms of being able to kind of as a teacher be able to do some reflection with colleagues and things like that that uh maybe the people you don't normally see during a normal team meeting or collaboration time um and so we're really proud
008that the longest stretch is five weeks um uh and then uh like I we've had for again from a negotiations lens we've oftentimes have had those stretches where um April where you might have um on a Friday more staff that just because of those long stretches take off by giving those pauses in it's one of those Corrections that we had done on in April um over the last few years we were able to keep that um and so those were just some of the highlights that I think from a negotiations lens we were proud to be able to keep within this new calendar it is frankly the prettiest calendar I've seen in the um in my opinion in the um seven years that I've been on the board so uh thank you for your work
009and then I'll turn it over to my colleagues questions yeah Shannon go ahead okay um I really love this calendar you all did a great job um so traditionally we're used to seeing something labeled as an inclement weather makeup day on the calendar can you um talk through I don't see that in the description so can you talk through how that's structured um for purposes of the the day the state forgives if you yeah do that so the way the inclement weather days work is as a district we designate certain days throughout the school year as inclement weather days and every day that we Mark as an inclement weather day that we are actually in session we get that day plus a day forgiven and so uh Liberty on math but one equals two okay
010so what we have done is we've been working with um the Department of Education to verify but we are actually um changing our approach on inclement weather days and putting them not front- facing out inside for the public we're actually putting them into the s66 the superintendent report which is a behind the-scenes support report that we submit to the state every year and on that report we'll inclement we'll we'll indicate our four inclement weather days next year so because we've built such a great buffer we can have up to four inclement weather days and we can place those days anywhere in the course of the school year that we would normally be in session so in the past we've put these days in April thinking oh we hope we don't have to use them but
011what we've gleaned from the state and verified and corrected is we can place those days anywhere over the course of the year like a Thursday in September when there is no inclement weather on the horizon and that way we would be able to count that day as an inclement weather day so it builds us a buffer on days we know we're going to be in session and not dependent upon what the snow or the forecast might bring so I just want to jump in there and say this is a concept that I'm struggling with um and I appreciate the question we'll continue to learn more about this it's an adjustment that the state is allowing um and I continue to ask the team to draw me a picture and as I become more proficient I
012will share that with you all um I didn't come ready tonight because it is exactly what James says but there's still well okay well how does that work it's it's something that the state allows and our minutes I mean we are getting to our minutes and our days so okay I really appreciate that uh it it that would be a substantial shift in the way that the state department is interacting with us on this issue so I appreciate that um and just knowing that that's that's why we don't see it look the way that it has looked in the past um so thank you appreciate it and then just to just a nod to our last year conversation about um snow days can you talk a little bit about how you verify this with the
013state what that conversation looks like yes so um we had some uh leadership members sitting on a um they do a a superintendent call every Thursday and we had some leadership members sitting on that call where they had mentioned this initially and so we continued conversations internally as a district about it and we're curious um before we rush to judgments and so we did call the state department um and in fact the supervisor of that department and did get them to verify um that what they had shared on the call was in fact accurate um and so we feel very confident that we can put this forward with that um but we'll continue to ask questions and make sure that we are um doing things the way that we should thank you appreciate that um
014questions G and then so um you know for several years one of the things that that we usually hear around this time when we publish a calendar is when can we get a multi-year calendar and so with this consolidation how close do you think does the calendar committee feel they are closer now to getting a multi-year calendar than they have been in the past yeah sure um one of the challenges with doing a multi-year calendar in the past is often times um there's just a lot of unknowns in terms of the way that some of the language was written in the master agreement about um you know plan days things like that um so that is a benefit of potentially if we're able to uh change some of that language as we've talked about with
015increasing plan time um so we're very confident that we can come up with a multi- calendar multi-year calendar approach moving forward have we gotten there yet this year no um but uh the calendar committee still wants to continue to meet this year and start to start to work on that if I may add member I um was waiting until after tonight uh to um lean more heavily on them so but I feel like this is a great time because there's such good momentum going and I'm so proud of the work so fantastic so through the negotiations the community can understand through the negotiations process you might be negotiating things like a second plan time for elementary education you have to change the language that gets voted on in closer to like June 1 and so
016the reason why you wouldn't see a second year right now is because that that negotiated agreement language is getting cleaned up once that is cleaned up you could foresee a um in the future a two-year calendar potentially uh just as a as a board member I would ask potentially 20 25 26 what would it be actually it would be 26 27 27 28 yeah just be a 2year rolling calendar so with the charge that we got from Dr Swift two weeks ago um there is I think I showed kind of a little bit of there is a lot of language that will have to be reviewed through negotiations in that process um to the point where we're adding some negotiation meetings to look at all of that language um and start working on that so
017until until that process is finalized um and we're able to tentatively agree on what that language is I wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable with us okay starting that process but again that's a that's something we're working on I think that we will get there within the next month or so okay um it's just that we just haven't had the time since okay and since there's so much language change it's actually quite ambitious it's possible that we could be back with a one-year calendar next that's a possibility just in terms of controlling expect say yes it's possible um but I also think that you know with the way that we ratify ultimately the negotiated agreement um it's not something that I foresee us necessarily having to wait if if okay that ultimately goes through and is ratified
018um we might start on what that is in the calendar committee this year um and then ultimately be ready to ratify something you know or to approve a calendar for uh 2627 sooner than what we typically have been thank you if that if that helps an um yeah sorry to kind of circle back but can I get some clarity on the inclement weather days so you said there's four buil in and for every one that we would be attending we would get one from the state so in theory there are eight days built in sort of that's correct yes okay yes what happens if we have no snow days next year yeah so the way the inclement weather days work is you have to attend in order to use any of them so we would
019want to make sure that the days that we were um marking as inclement weather days were days we were for sure going to be in um but then if we don't use them um nothing we count those as instructional hours and we go on our merry way okay we don't get to cash them back in or anything yes a great question that there's no like the April day that we have this year does not exist next year right it's inward facing very good you had mentioned uh that you were were we were increasing instructional time could you explain how yeah so one of the things that we talked about at negotiations on Thursday was um part of this calendar is also um a recommendation to just extend student contact Time 5 minutes um and that
020would allow us for that increased instructional time so as the negotiations team and the union come together to talk about language changes um that is something that was discussed Thursday and something they'll continue to work through um okay no okay all right an have my question okay um an took Carol's question well no because I was just thinking about about my nephews who were like were probably watching this like okay what that mean we mom um and I one of the things I want to highlight that you said when you get that April 21st day that we now have to attend school that can be a little I imagine for someone in the district or for a kid a little heartbreaking to some extent that you lose that so to your point about the F
021every five weeks there's a break uh something that Educators can look toward or that students are going to have a type of break that might help offset that yeah so uh for instance in this year uh calendar the and I forget what day in April it is but I think it's the third Friday um is a I think it's a work day for elementary and Elementary only one of the things that we really try to do with aligning is that that day becomes something that all three levels and for if you include Early Childhood can can be able to take advantage of okay um which is not something that like for instance this year or even last year I think we were able to take advantage of okay question um I would be interested as
022a board member in knowing how this calendar impacts the need for substitute teachers so just to kind of and I know that's something that HR watches um all the time but it would be interesting to know if it has a positive impact it sounds like it might so just to watch that data and compare would be uh welcomed I mean I would like to see that and then as um I'm glad for parents that if a high school or middle school kid can be home to take care of an elementary kid that that's available to them with this calendar which I think is huge so thank you for doing that okay does that mean the start times and end times are aligned or how does that work we're not there to that detail yet would
023like to be but we're not but the day would so with Elementary is out of school uh High School is I think there's only one remaining that's different yes for conferences yeah High School requires a different amount of time for conferences so they are actually in session um two more days than Elementary because Elementary has that Thursday off each conference week for anyone who's had kids go through um uh Elementary typically has the Thursday off as a full day while middle and high school attend um that is still in this this calendar which equates to the different and day that is the only day each semester that is different okay one in October one in February yes okay okay all right um so I think we've run through discussion I'm wondering if there's a motion
024I move the Board of Education to adopt the district community and staff calendar for the 2025 2026 school year I second Kimble yes buyers yes too Blackwood yes cust yes Franklin yes Gordon Ross Yes Jones yes the motion passes 70