Exeter board reviews draft 2025–26 calendar; administration cites teacher contract and training requirements

Administrators explained the district's draft 2025–26 calendar during the education committee, noting it balances teacher contract days, state-mandated trainings and student-data review periods.

A district official told the board the teacher contract calls for 189 contracted teacher days and the administration reduced student days to 179 for the coming year. "In our district, it's a 189 days. That's how many days that they're contracted to work," the official said, noting state training requirements and distributed student-data review points throughout the year. "There is never a perfect calendar, but we are creating a calendar that is best meeting the needs of our students for looking at student data, meeting training requirements, and of course, complying with the teacher's contract," the official said.

Board members said the administration's role is to propose a calendar that meets state and contractual requirements and that the board's role is to recommend changes if it finds the proposal does not meet community needs. One board member praised the draft as "the best calendar to meet the academic needs of our students," while others had no substantive changes at the committee meeting.

The draft calendar will be placed on the Jan. 21 voting agenda for formal board action.