Those changes are summarized below:

1. The start of school next year is delayed one day with school now starting on Tuesday, August 25.  This provides an additional planning day and allows for the first week to be a four day week allowing students to re-acclimate to the school day
2. Eliminate early release days and combine that time into a single Monday each month as a Teacher Work Day.  Those days are Sept 28, Oct 26, November 30, January 25, February 22, March,29, and  April 26.  For families that wish to participate at no additional cost, childcare/enrichment activities will be provided for students in grades K-8 on these days preventing families from needing to find coverage for childcare on these non-academic days.  We will work in partnership with our community partners on exciting opportunities for students and students will be able to ride the bus as they usual on these childcare/enrichment days.  For families that wish to keep their children home, this will not count as an absence and provides great opportunities for family engagement.
3. Change the original teacher workday from January 15 to January 4 allowing for teachers to return and plan prior to students returning from winter break.
4. End the school year one day earlier to Thursday, June 3 allowing teachers to wrap up their work and begin their summer break without needing to return the following week.

We are confident that these changes will support our teachers with quality time blocks to enhance planning and provide them the much needed time.  We appreciate those members of our community and members of our staff who responded to our surveys.  We recognize that while the majority supported these changes, some did not.  We will continue to work to enact a calendar that has a positive impact on student outcomes while supporting our employees in carrying out this most important work of our time.  We continue to process possible calendars for the 2021-22 school year and hope to approve a calendar early next year.