Academic Excellence Committee recommends moving October PD day to April 30

The Academic Excellence Committee of Crook County SD voted to forward a revised school calendar to the board that replaces an October professional development day with one on April 30.

The committee discussed testing and scheduling constraints that shaped the decision. The director of school improvement said the group’s priority is students and noted that “May is not good” for many grade levels because of state and AP testing windows. Members representing elementary, middle and high school staff raised school-specific conflicts: middle school leaders cited OSAS testing timing and high school staff cited AP testing concerns.

After a thumb vote narrowed options to April 30 or keeping October 30, the committee reached consensus against May. Eric Osborne moved “to move the calendar as discussed to the board,” and the director of school improvement seconded the motion. A roll call followed and members recorded their approval; the committee agreed to forward the calendar recommendation to the full board for final action.

Committee members said the April date would help preserve three solid weeks of instruction before testing and would avoid the late‑May testing/conference conflicts they flagged. The committee also noted family-schedule considerations (including hunting season) as part of why October timing was questioned for some communities.

The recommendation now goes to the school board for a final decision; the committee did not set an implementation timeline beyond forwarding the motion.