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Board adopts 2025‑26 calendar, approves inclement‑weather makeup plan and added minutes
Summary
After storms erased instructional time, district will add short minutes across the day beginning March 24, designate an inclement‑weather makeup day and adopt the 2025‑26 district calendar with added instructional minutes and more mid‑year pauses; the board approved the calendar 7‑0.
The Lawrence Board of Education voted March 10 to adopt the 2025‑26 district calendar and approved a plan to make up instructional time lost to winter weather.
Superintendent Janice K. Swift described the makeup plan the district developed with teachers and staff. "Beginning Monday, March 24 after our spring break, we will be adding 15 minutes ... Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday ..." she said, and added that principals will distribute exact dismissal times. Swift said the minutes will be added during instruction (not at lunch) and not concentrated only in a final period. She also said the district will add 25 minutes at the end of Wednesdays and that the designated inclement‑weather makeup day will be Monday, April 21, which is scheduled as a full school day.
District staff explained the state‑approved mechanism they will use for inclement‑weather accounting. James Polk (calendar committee staff) said the district will work with the Kansas Department of Education and use the superintendent’s report (SO66) to designate up to four inclement‑weather days internally; "every day that we mark as an inclement weather day that we are actually in session, we get that day plus a day forgiven," Polk said in describing the approach staff validated with the state. That allows the district to place those designated days on dates when the district will be in session rather than exposing them publicly on the face of the calendar.
The adopted 2025‑26 calendar also increases elementary instructional minutes overall, aligns many days across pre‑K through grade 12 to simplify family scheduling, moves parent‑teacher conferences earlier into February for more timely feedback, and adds more frequent "purposeful pauses" across the year so staff and families do not face long stretches without a break. District leaders said the calendar provides a larger buffer against future inclement weather.
Board member and calendar committee participants praised the collaborative process. The board adopted the 2025‑26 district calendar by a 7‑0 vote.
District staff said building principals will notify families by the end of the week with exact dismissal times, bus route changes and exam schedules for seniors. The district also said seniors will not need additional end‑of‑year adjustments beyond the minute/timetable changes planned; principals will notify seniors about any small changes to final‑exam timing.
The board discussed whether the district could move to a multiyear calendar in future years; staff said language changes and negotiations with employee groups remain necessary before committing to a multiyear schedule.
