Board of Education approves two years worth of calendars to open 2022

Look for the Polk School District for at least the next two years to stick with a four-day school week from Tuesdays through Fridays, and a five-day school week for staff as the Board of Education approved the academic calendars for 2022-23, and 2023-24 during their regular session on January 11.

The unanimous votes in separate requests for each calendar came with an explanation as to why from Superintendent Dr. Katie Thomas, much of focused around the continued challenges posed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We talked to parents, and students, community business partners on why their voice and their role matters on not just helping us with a calendar, but the overall improvement of our school district and what they do for kids,” she explained. “Along with that, I personally went to every school staff and did a SWOT analysis where we talked about each school’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. From that what we have gauged in our feedback is that the current calendar doing the four-day student week and the five day teacher week has allowed us to develop and create an environment and culture where the morale speaks for itself. Where the morale has promoted a positive environment for our teachers and staff, which in return makes a difference for our students.”

“If you don’t know that to be the case, please research and read any article on the crisis in education right now. It is real, it is valid and it is happening everywhere around us,” Thomas continued. “We’ve been fortunate that we’ve had a four-day student week, and a day for teachers to come in and not only tackle anything that happens as far as related to pandemic virtual learning, but to train because there is a substitute crisis in this nation.”

A problem that reared its ugly head again on Monday when the district announced students were back to virtual learning for the week as they seek to resolve issues caused by staff shortages because of an increase of cases caused by the omicron variant with teachers and support staff.

“The pandemic is something that we’ve been dealt, and it is something that we’re trying to deal with,” Thomas said during the explanation of the calendars.

WATCH BELOW: Video from tonight’s meeting.

Thomas added that she understands that virtual learning isn’t a good solution, but the district will continue to ensure students are learning no matter what comes ahead.

“Is it an inconvenience to some of our families? Yes. That is an unfortunate circumstance of the situation,” she said.

The four-day school week for youth will start this coming year with the first day of school on Tuesday, August 2, and continue through the first semester until the Fall Break, scheduled for September 26 through Sept. 30. Following that, the schools will be closed for Thanksgiving week from November 21 through Nov. 25, the holiday break from December 19 through Dec. 30, a winter break from February 20 through Feb. 24, 2023, and Spring Break from April 3 through April 7, 2023. 

The final day of the 2022-23 academic calendar is May 26, 2023. Staff will report for the final two days of May 2023 for in-service days. They’ll report to work on Tuesday through Friday for the final week of July ahead of the start of the school year as well.

Here’s what the 2022-23 calendar looks like in full:

For the 2023-24 Academic Calendar, staff will be back in the classroom on July 25 ahead of the students’ first day of school on August 1, 2023. They’ll have Fall Break from September 25 through Sept. 29, then Thanksgiving from November 20 through Nov. 24, and a holiday break from December 18 through Dec. 29, 2023. School returns back in session on January 2, 2024, until a winter break from February 19 through Feb. 24, 2024.

Spring Break is from April 8 through April 12, 2024, followed by the final day of classes on May 24, 2024.

Here’s what the 2023-24 academic calendar looks like in full:

Chack back for more coverage from the January school board meeting coming up on Wednesday evening.