Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Calendars Pd topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Canyons district presents 2026–29 school calendars and expands professional-development days; board, staff discuss flex options
Summary
District staff presented proposed calendars for 2026–27 through 2028–29 and explained a districtwide expansion to four professional-development days that replaces instructional time; trustees and teachers debated how much PD should be required and how much flexibility principals should retain.
Steve Diamond, director of human resources for Canyons School District, presented the district's proposed calendars for the 2026–27, 2027–28 and 2028–29 school years at the Oct. 21 board meeting, and recapped three calendar variances the district seeks for the longer-range draft.
The proposed 2026–27 calendar preserves the district's current start and end rhythms, Diamond said; the 2027–28 proposal sets a firm start and end date so the district can schedule graduations and facility needs. The draft 2028–29 calendar would begin on the second Monday in August rather than the third, a one-year variance Diamond said would avoid pushing winter recess into Memorial Day week. He also described minor variances for kindergarten start dates and a carry-forward of four professional-development days the board approved earlier this year.
Why it matters: The calendars establish family-facing dates for the coming years and lock in a district commitment to replace instructional days with professional development, a change that affects teaching schedules and building operations.
Diamond said the district must present a finalized start and end date for the coming year. He described how parent-teacher conference blocks rotate among elementary, middle and high schools, and walked trustees through the four districtwide PD days that are attached to conference or quarter-ending dates. The calendar packet handed out to trustees shows teacher return dates, student start dates, semester end dates and vacation windows.
Board and staff discussion centered on two topics: (1) how the four PD days should be used, and (2) whether secondary schools should adopt a fixed A/B day schedule.
Dr. Levy Robbins, (identified in the meeting as the district official who provided legal and historical context for the PD change), reviewed the state-level bill that enabled compensated non-instructional days and said the statute and the district's earlier board actions allowed the district to convert instructional days to PD days rather than adding days to the student calendar. Robbins told trustees the legislation, amended in 2022 by Representative Jefferson Moss, allows a mix of professional development, planning and preparation time and that the district's current practice defines a set of expectations for those days.
Several trustees and union and school-level representatives urged a flexible approach. "I don't think we have to have one size fits all for the entire district," said Board Member Mrs. Dolla (as recorded in the meeting transcript), suggesting principals and faculty should set how much of each PD day is collaborative PD and how much is teacher-directed planning. Board Member Katie (recorded in the transcript as "Katie") and others recommended surveying parents, teachers and students before making long-term calendar changes and to consider different PD mixes by level (elementary vs. secondary).
Teachers and school leaders who addressed the board at the meeting said they support the idea of more targeted PD but do not want four hours of mandated sit-down PD at every site every time. Several trustees and staff recommended framing the PD days as a time window ''up to'' a number of hours rather than a rigid, prescriptive requirement and asked principals to consult their faculties to tailor use of the time.
Two scheduling alternatives were discussed for secondary schools: a fixed A/B day model (A days Mondays/Wednesdays, B days Tuesdays/Thursdays, rotating Fridays) and continuing the current rotating A/B schedule. Diamond said Granite District uses the fixed model while Alpine uses the rotating model; each has different tradeoffs for AP alignment, assemblies and athletic schedules.
The board asked staff to pull absenteeism and attendance data around holiday weeks to see whether added adjacent days increase out-of-pocket leave-taking and to survey principals and teachers about the PD window proposal. Diamond and Robbins said they would return with survey design and recommended revisions at a later meeting.
Ending note: Trustees did not take a formal vote on the calendars at the Oct. 21 meeting; staff presented the calendars for first reading and asked the board to provide policy direction about whether to codify the PD-day approach and the proposed variances.
