D49 presents 2025–26 school-family calendars; board moves final approval to Feb. 13

Lisa Fellow, executive director of learning services, presented draft school-family calendars on Jan. 22 and recommended the 2025–26 calendar as final and the 2026–27 calendar as preliminary.

Why it matters: School calendars affect families’ schedules, assessment days and attendance reporting; the board’s approval sets instructional and assessment timelines that feed state reporting and October count processes.

Presentation highlights: Fellow said the calendars reflect input from parents and stakeholders (including the district’s VCT committee) and that a key change aligns elementary assessment days so students test in person during October-count windows. She noted the calendar design work is ongoing to comply with accessibility requirements and to make the calendar easier to use on district and school web pages.

Board questions and technical details: Directors asked about the rationale for concentrated assessment days (April as a longer testing month) and whether calendar PDFs are accessible; staff and board discussed the Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility requirement that website documents be machine-readable and usable with screen readers. Fellow said communications staff is working on an accessible web version and acknowledged the district must offer both printable and accessible formats.

Board action: By consensus the board agreed to move the school-family calendars into action at the Feb. 13 meeting for final approval. Staff said communications would provide the accessible calendar version once ready.

Ending note: Board members complimented the calendar for community-friendly breaks and asked staff to continue work on accessible web presentation and parent communications ahead of final action at the Feb. 13 meeting.