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Excelsior Springs board unanimously adopts 2025–26 school-year calendar
Summary
Board approved a 169-day calendar after state rule changes; calendar adds monthly half-day professional development and a fourth day for new-teacher training; vote 7-0.
The Excelsior Springs School District Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the 2025–26 school-year calendar, which the district developed to comply with new Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) day-count rules.
“DESE changed the requirements,” Dr. Miller told the board during the presentation, explaining the state moved from counting instructional hours to counting days. Under that model the district must schedule at least 169 days to receive full funding, and the approved calendar reaches that threshold without adding paid workdays for teachers.
The calendar keeps the district’s current teacher contract days unchanged while expanding the total student calendar to 169 days. Key changes include converting the second Friday of each month into a half day for students and using the remaining half day for staff professional development; increasing new-teacher training from three to four days; and preserving two full weeks of winter break. The district will count a day as a school day when a student attends any portion of that day, a detail Dr. Miller said the calendar committee used to meet the state requirement without lengthening teacher contracts.
Board Member Jill moved to approve the calendar and Board Member Caitlin seconded. The board voted 7–0 to adopt the calendar.
Dr. Miller also said the monthly half-day model was designed to give teachers more consistent, smaller blocks of professional development rather than isolated full-day sessions. “We wanted to make teachers happy, wanted to give students everything that they need, and wanted to make parents happy as well,” Dr. Miller said.
The district will publish the new calendar to parents and staff and implement the revised professional development schedule in 2025–26.
