Lincoln County School District #2 committee debates tradeoffs: more Fridays vs. start/end dates and summer work

Superintendent Rob Erickson and members of the Lincoln County School District #2 calendar committee laid out two proposed calendars for the 2025–26 school year and spent the meeting debating tradeoffs between adding Fridays off, starting later in August, and shifting instructional time into June.

Why it matters: Calendar timing affects instructional seat time required by the Wyoming State Board of Education, the district payroll and fiscal-year accounting, summer maintenance and capital projects, district transportation routes and staffing, and family childcare and extracurricular schedules.

Calendar options and committee recommendation

The committee presented two draft calendars: “Calendar A,” which preserves a longer Christmas break and starts later in August, and “Calendar B,” which shortens the Christmas break, starts earlier (Aug. 21 in the packet), and increases the number of Fridays off during the school year. Committee members told the board that a staff survey sent to employees favored Calendar B by roughly 78% to 22%, and the committee recommended Calendar B as the proposed calendar to the board for consideration.

State rules and instructional-time counting

District staff explained the state’s distinction between traditional and alternate calendars. Brenda (district staff) summarized state guidance: contact (instructional) time for reporting counts only when a student is “in a seat in front of a certified teacher” (lunch, passing and recess do not count). The district currently reports…