Board approves Decorah Community Schools Calendar for 2013-2014

With no public comment regarding the desired waiver to begin school before the statutory earliest day, the Decorah Community School Board approved the 2013-14 Calendar at their meeting Monday night. Superintendent Mike Haluska credited the District Leadership Team for working hard to create the calendar and affect changes. Perhaps the biggest change is starting classes on a Tuesday.
 
Calendar highlights include:

• Tuesday, August 20 – first day of classes
• November 28-29 – Thanksgiving recess
• December 23-January 5 – Winter Break
• January 10 – end of 1st Semester
• February 14-17 – no school
• April 18 – (one day) Spring Break
• May 15 – last day for seniors
• May 18 – Commencement
• May 22 – last day of classes

There are two "snow days" built into the schedule. Cancellations beyond that begin with make up on May 23. The full calendar will be posted soon on the district website.

Some other discussion revolved around the number of early dismissals and comments received from the public related to that. Board members noted that the increase in these early dismissals is related to state mandated teacher collaboration time, and that the imposition was essentially another non-funded state mandate. To do the mandated meetings without the early dismissals would require the district to expand teacher pay beyond the number of contracted days and be at a significant district cost. Still, they noted the proven correlation of in-service education to student achievement.