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Committee reviews preliminary 2025–26 school calendar; asks for attendance data on "straggler" days

January 08, 2025 | Westborough Public Schools, School Boards, Massachusetts


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Committee reviews preliminary 2025–26 school calendar; asks for attendance data on "straggler" days
District staff presented a draft 2025–26 school calendar for committee review and invited comment on layout, holidays and the distribution of full five-day weeks.

The draft continues the district's previous calendar philosophy and omits Lunar New Year as a separate holiday because it falls during vacation week. Staff said the layout will be revised for readability and that the calendar is a draft intended for public comment.

Nut graf: Committee members raised recurring concerns about many "broken" weeks (short weeks that interrupt continuity), "straggler" days adjacent to vacations that have lower attendance and the constraints of state requirements, including the mandate for 180 school days and snow-day rules. The administration offered to provide historical attendance data for those adjacent days to help inform calendar adjustments.

A committee member counted full five-day weeks and said the draft includes 17 (or 18 when Lunar New Year falls on a break) of 42 possible full weeks, arguing that increasing contiguous full weeks would benefit students. The superintendent noted that district calendars must balance holidays, required instructional days and alignment with neighboring districts to avoid staffing problems. Staff emphasized that changing the distribution of breaks has been discussed previously and that public feedback will guide any adjustments.

Ending: The committee will post the draft for public comment and revisit the calendar in a future meeting after staff compiles attendance and other scheduling data.

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