Month: January 2024

At the January 23 meeting of the Regional School Committee, we got our first look at the proposed calendars for the 2024-25 school year. 

Below is a summary of the highlights of the two proposals*, alongside with the current calendar for comparison. (I suggest that you get out or open up a calendar, so that you can see the days of the week of these dates.)

	Current 23-24 (Labor Day Sep 3)	24-25 Option #2 (Labor Day Sep 2)	24-25 Option #3 (Labor Day Sep 2)
First day of school (grades 1-12)	Aug 30	Aug 26	Aug 28
First day of school (preK and K)	Sep 5	Aug 28	Sep 3
Winter break	Dec 25-Jan 1	Dec 23-Jan 6	Dec 23-Jan 1
Last day of school (depending on snow days)	Jun 14-24	Jun 17-25	Jun 17-25

My initial thought is that Option #2 looks appealing because of the extra long winter break, which has Three King Days (Jan 6) tacked on at the end (starting Monday December 23, returning Tuesday January 7). That said, I’m concerned that families with child care needs would find it difficult to have kids out of school for an extra long time.

* Option #1, with a start date after Labor Day, was not considered feasible because it would push the potential last day of school (with five snow days) to July 1, which is prohibited by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (Proposing a start date after Labor Day is required in our contract with the APEA, the union representing educators, paraeducators, and clerical staff.)

We will likely be choosing a calendar and voting on it at our February 27 meeting. Please share your perspective and input. Which schedule do you and your family prefer? Here are options for sending your input:

• Email me at shiaoj@arps.org
• Email the entire Regional School Committee at RegionalSchoolCommittee@aprs.org

If you would like your comment included as public comment, send it to SCPublicComment@arps.org with “Public Comment” in the subject field

It is crucial that the Search Committee and the Regional and Union 26 School Committees hear from members of the community about what YOU are looking for in our next superintendent. To that end, McPherson & Jacobson (M&J), the executive search firm for the superintendent search, will be holding a series of community input sessions between Jan 16 and 27, at which participants will be asked to address the following four topics:

1. Tell us the good things about your community.
2. Tell us the good things about your school district.
3. What are the issues in the district that the incoming superintendent should be aware of?
4. What characteristics should the new superintendent have to be successful?

M&J will summarize the input from all of the sessions into a report for the 20-member Search Committee, and for the Regional and Union 26 School Committees.

There will be six sessions open to the public, including a Spanish language session, and sessions which focus on Special Education, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students and families, and LGBTQIA+ students and families. Community members are invited to join any of the public sessions. Most sessions will be virtual, with one in-person session. Visit arps.org/suptsearch for a schedule of the sessions, as well as updated info about the search.

To provide another way of giving input, an online survey will be launched near the end of January with the same four questions.