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Norton draft school calendar keeps traditional Labor Day start; committee to add early-release dates after further review
Summary
Administrators presented a draft 2025-26 school calendar proposing a Tuesday after Labor Day start for grades 1–12, staggered starts for kindergarten and preschool, a Jan. 5 return after winter break and a tentative June 12 last day if snow days remain minimal. The committee asked staff to return with proposed districtwide early-release dates.
Norton Public Schools staff presented a draft 2025–26 academic calendar during the Jan. 22 School Committee meeting that keeps a historically traditional schedule: students would return the Tuesday following Labor Day (grades 1–12), kindergarten would begin on the Wednesday after Labor Day and the preschool program would start on the Friday after Labor Day.
The presenter said the winter-break return would be Monday, Jan. 5, 2026 (noting New Year’s Day falls on a Thursday), and that, barring significant inclement weather, the last student day would be Friday, June 12, 2026. Staff also described the calendar’s pre-built midterm/half-day dates and said they would present districtwide early-release dates at a future meeting after internal review.
Committee members discussed the tradeoffs of monthly half-day professional development (PD) schedules versus full-day PDs, late-start days and districtwide versus school-specific early-release schedules. One member highlighted challenges for families whose preschoolers pay the same tuition but lose instructional time on frequent half days; staff said converting monthly half days to a smaller number of full-day PDs would raise teacher contractual days and require bargaining changes.
Staff committed to returning with recommendations and timelines for early-release or PD-day changes and said the finalized early-release schedule would be provided before the committee’s final calendar vote.
Ending: The committee agreed to vote on the calendar as presented and asked staff to bring proposed districtwide early-release dates for committee review before final approval.
