Board holds calendar hearing; staff says missing day and a professional-development date were corrected after union review

Garfield Heights trustees held a 10-minute calendar hearing Monday during which staff explained corrections to the proposed 2025–26 district calendar and noted that the district had worked with the teachers’ union on the changes.

A staff member said the draft calendar had an omission — one date number was missing — and that the district removed a professional-development day previously placed in November after discussions with the union. “It was our PD day that we ended up removing,” a staff presenter said, and identified the missing day as roughly Oct. 27 where the draft had jumped from the 26th to the 28th.

Board members praised the clearer layout of the revised calendar and staff credited Teaching & Learning and Human Resources for producing a cleaner, easier-to-read calendar and for good collaboration with the union. Questions from board members included whether preschool start dates are listed in the calendar’s back pages and whether the district coordinates its schedule with other neighboring districts; staff said they do not typically coordinate calendars with neighboring districts.

The hearing produced comments from trustees about typical Thanksgiving-period practice, including a long-standing agreement that teachers have a day off before Thanksgiving; staff said that day — discussed in the hearing as Nov. 26 — reflects negotiated practice. No formal approval of the calendar was recorded at the work session; the item remains on the board’s upcoming meeting agenda for action.