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Board reviews 2025–26 calendar; staff to return with options to reduce instructional days or adjust schedule
Summary
Administrators presented a draft 2025–26 academic calendar that redistributes professional-development days across the school year and results in more instructional hours than state minimums; trustees asked staff to prepare alternatives (including reducing days to 172, removing a spring PD day or adjusting daily minutes) and return in February.
District leaders presented the draft 2025–26 school calendar and explained how professional development and instructional minutes align with district strategic goals for reading proficiency, data-driven instruction and staff development.
The proposed calendar reduces the number of professional-development days that historically were concentrated in August, spreading PD opportunities throughout the year to align with a University of Nebraska–Lincoln reading-adoption program and in-class literacy coaching. Administrators emphasized the change was intended to provide sustained, job-embedded professional learning rather than one-time workshops.
Presenters noted the draft calendar results in student seat time above state hourly requirements in all levels. The presentation cited the high school at about 1,134.7 hours (the state requirement cited as 1,080 hours), the middle school at 1,107.3 hours, and the elementary at about 1,134.5 hours; the district described these as exceeding required hours by several days (presenters converted those excess hours to "extra days").
A trustee objected that the draft reverts the end-of-school date to an earlier pattern the district had previously moved away from and asked whether the district could reduce instructional days to return the year-end to the mid-May timeframe. Administrators said options include removing the March PD day (spring break adjustment), shifting Christmas or pre-holiday time, reducing the total number of instructional days to around 172, or adding a few minutes to the daily schedule to meet hourly requirements while reducing days.
Administrators said they would return to the board in February with calendar alternatives that would meet contractual PD-hour requirements while addressing board concerns about year-end timing, spring break placement and distribution of PD dates. No final calendar approval occurred at this session.
