The school board recently approved the 2014-2015 school calendar. The biggest change has been the addition of conditional days which may be required depending on the number of school cancellations due to weather or unforeseen events.

The basic structure of the calendar remains unchanged. The first day of school is August 25, only one day earlier than the start of this year. The last day is May 28, and even though only one student contact day was added to the schedule for 2014-2015, there is still a significant difference between the last day this year, May 22, and next year.

One specifically new feature is the fact that extra days have been earmarked as potential student contact days depending on the number of snow days used.  The change to the calendar came about because the number of days this year exceeded the limit.

According to Superintendent Ed Longfield, a maximum number of 10 snow days could have been used this year before the school year needed to be extended. As it turned out, there were 11 cancellations this year, and Mr. Longfield had to send the the school board a letter to waive the rule.

On the other hand, if fewer snow days are used, then there could be an early release at the end of the year.

When designing a calendar, the school district must consider student contact days or hours. The law says that a minimum of 160 school days are required, and the students must spend at least 156 actual days in school per year. The same rule can be applied to the number of hours; 1080 hours must be scheduled, and 1056 hours is the fewest possible number of hours that students must spend in school. Half days for special events, midterms, finals, etc., can only be counted as a full day if lunch is offered.

Below is a link to the PDF of the official schedule.

2014-2015 Official School Calendar