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Superintendent previews 2025–26 draft calendar, Leader in Me expansion and student lighthouse team
Summary
Superintendent presented a draft 2025–26 calendar keeping a two‑week Easter break and fewer professional development half‑days, and outlined plans to launch a student 'lighthouse' leadership team and expand Leader in Me classroom practice.
Superintendent Dr. Ziliak presented a draft 2025–26 school calendar and an update on several student‑focused initiatives at the April 8 board meeting.
The draft calendar retains a two‑week Easter break (which roughly 70% of faculty reportedly prefer) and reduces the number of professional‑development half days compared with past drafts while keeping two full conference days. Dr. Ziliak said the district will gather attendance and BOCES usage data as part of final calendar discussion and will bring the calendar back to the board for adoption.
Dr. Ziliak also highlighted the district's continued rollout of Leader in Me: beginning in September the district plans daily short lessons for all students (08:55–09:10) to teach five‑ to seven‑minute leadership practices across grades. He described plans to form a student lighthouse team with applications and interviews in May, selecting members between May 13 and May 19 and onboarding between May 28 and the summer.
Board members raised attendance concerns about professional‑development half days; one board member cited high‑school absentee numbers of roughly 130–140 students on previous half days versus lower counts the day before, and asked staff for more data before final calendar adoption.
Next steps: staff will collect attendance statistics for the half days and continue calendar discussions; the board plans further review before adding the calendar for a formal vote at a future meeting (noted for April 29 in packet references).
