Proposals for a 2024-25 district school calendar will come before the Board of Education during its Regular Meeting on March 19th.

There are two Options that are being discussed (see the proposals here), both which contain chronic absenteeism mitigation strategies such as moving professional learning early release days to Friday since Friday’s show the greatest number of student absences anyhoo, closing  a half day prior to Thanksgiving Break when there is very low attendance, extend winter break to minimize absences prior to Christmas and between New Year’s and Three Kings Day, close schools for a long weekend in February, start after Labor Day, and close the day after President’s Day when most other districts are closed (it’s amazing how district leadership references what other districts are doing when it benefits their agenda, but when it comes to other things such as a world languages program which other districts support with fidelity, this district’s leadership falls silent).

Supposedly, the calendar was built based on the feedback of all stakeholders, from the unions to the parents.  It was stated during the presentation of the proposed calendar that 500 parents had responded to an HPS survey on the calendar.

Speaking of calendars, I’m not positive who is responsible for creating and maintaining the board of education’s meeting calendar and getting that information into the city’s calendar system, but they do a terrible job.  This also applies to attaching meeting documents to the BoardDocs agendas, which, as in the case of the Superintendent’s Report at the Regular Meeting, are often missing. 

Concerning the malfeasance in not attaching board documents to the district’s agenda on their website, this is a violation of Section 6 of Public Act 23-160, which states:

“Sec. 6. Section 10-220 of the general statutes is amended by adding subsection (g) as follows (Effective July 1, 2023):(NEW) (g) Each local or regional board of education conducting a regular or special meeting of such board shall make available for public inspection the agenda for the meeting or any associated documents that may be reviewed by members of the board at such meeting and post such agenda and documents on the Internet web site of such board.”

Whatever day it is on your calendar, have a nice one.