Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Calendar topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
School City of East Chicago board reviews 2025-26 calendar, proposes start-time changes to meet state instructional-hour rules
Summary
Trustees discussed a proposed 2025-26 school calendar that adds monthly virtual professional development/e-learning days, new teacher orientation and mentorship days, and earlier start times for Central High School and Block Junior High to meet updated Indiana instructional-hour requirements.
The School City of East Chicago Board of Trustees on Monday reviewed a proposed calendar for the 2025-26 school year that would add monthly virtual professional development/e-learning days, expand new-teacher orientation and mentorship time, and change start times at two secondary schools to meet state instructional-hour requirements.
Superintendent Dr. Steven Bonet introduced the calendar; Assistant Superintendent Dr. Yanders and Miss Gutierrez presented highlights. Miss Gutierrez said the district ‘‘met with the members of the union calendar committee composed of administrators, teachers, as well as the union’’ while developing the draft and that the 2025-26 calendar is “pretty much in alignment” with the current year’s schedule. She said the draft adds monthly virtual days that will be used as professional-development days and eliminates elementary early-release days in favor of in-person time for younger students.
The proposal would shift Central High School’s start time to 7:30 a.m. from 8:00 a.m. and Block Junior High School’s start time to 8:30 a.m. from 9:00 a.m. Miss Gutierrez cited state instructional-time requirements, saying, “A student instructional day in grades 7 through 12 consists of at least 6 hours of instructional time. Currently right now Central has 5.6 hours of instructional time … This will take Central to 6.1” and would move Block from 5.58 hours to about 6.08 hours.
Trustees asked how the additional minutes would be counted and whether passing periods, planning time or PLCs can be counted as instructional time. Miss Gutierrez said the 2024 update to state guidelines narrowed what minutes may be counted as ‘‘on-contact’’ instructional time, and some previous flex or non-contact minutes have been excluded under the new guidance.
Trustees also sought details about the monthly virtual days. The presenters said December, March and April would be excluded from monthly e-learning days because of the busy holiday season and state testing windows; the district plans two full e-learning days and is holding a third slot in reserve for inclement weather. Presenters said elementary students will generally attend in-person half days on some hybrid-designated days to avoid asking young students to log in from home.
Board members discussed interest in studying a balanced calendar or four-day school week in future years. Dr. Yanders and Miss Gutierrez said the district would need to collect staff and family input and that such changes would likely require a multi-meeting review and possible committee work in the 2026–27 school year.
The calendar draft was presented for review at the work session; the administration said a final vote would occur at the upcoming public board meeting to be held at Block Middle School on Feb. 25.
The discussion included requests from trustees for the state guidance referenced and for the calendar spreadsheet to be distributed to the board and posted in the board packet if file-size limits permit.
