On Monday night, February 10th, at the monthly school board meeting, the board members approved the school calendar for next year, which was voted on by staff members of USD 394.

There is a detailed process that goes into building two calendar options for the district to vote on. Calendar A received 71 percent of the vote this year.

“On the Superintendent’s Council, there are two teachers from every building, so Ms. Jenny Page and I are on it for the high school,” said Matt Browning. “We have to come up with different options for the teachers to vote on. And they’re supposed to be pretty different, so they have to be really contrarian, but with the way Christmas falls on a Thursday and so is New Year’s Day, it’s hard to really do that.” 

Key dates for the upcoming school year:

-School starts on Wednesday, August 13th

-Fall conferences will be the week of October 13th

-For the second consecutive school year, school will not be in session during Thanksgiving week.

-Christmas Break runs from December 20th through January 4th

-Spring Break is the week of March 16th

-Last day of school for seniors May 13th and graduation is May 17th

-Last day of school for the district is May 20th

The calendars that were up for the vote were pretty similar to the one this year. And the only major difference between Calendar A and Calendar B was that B started a day later and the students got out of school a day later for summer. But the district still has 16 days for Christmas and a full week off for Thanksgiving. 

“The main reason I voted for Calendar A was because it started school on Wednesday,” Browning said. “I think that’s the best way to transition into school is starting with a late start.”