The Superintendent shall annually recommend to the Board of Education a school calendar that complies with the following statutory minimum number of hours in which the District’s schools are open for instruction with students in attendance (including regularly scheduled classes, supervised activities such as assemblies, approved education options, and co-curricular activities during the scheduled school day, but excluding lunch and breakfast periods and extracurricular activities):

When developing school calendar options for the Board’s review and approval, the Superintendent may include:

Additionally, in developing school calendar options, the Superintendent is reminded that hours scheduled above the minimum number will be considered "excess" and need not be made up if a school closes due to a calamity, so long as the actual hours the school is open for instruction remains above the statutory minimum number of hours. However, if a school closes enough that it falls below the minimum number of hours the school will be required to extend its scheduled school year in order to be open for the minimum number of hours. The Superintendent shall identify in his/her proposed school calendar the dates and times the District will be open for instructional purposes if it has to make up time in order to meet the statutory minimum number of hours.

The school calendar that the Superintendent recommends to the Board must include five (5) days for each regular week.

If the Superintendent intends to recommend a reduction in the number of hours in each school year that the school is scheduled to be open for instruction from the number of hours per year the school was open for instruction during the previous school year, the Superintendent must expressly notify the Board of the proposed reduction, which the Board must vote to approve.

Prior to recommending to the Board any change in the hours or days in which a District high school is open for instruction, the Superintendent must consider the compatibility of the proposed change with the scheduling needs of any joint vocational school district in which any of the District’s high school's students are also enrolled. The Superintendent shall further consider the impact of the proposed change on a) student access to the instructional programs offered by the joint vocational school district, b) incentives for students to participate in career-technical education, c) transportation, and d) the timing of graduation. The Superintendent shall address the preceding issues when presenting school calendar options to the Board for its review and adoption. If the Board intends to change the hours or days in which the District high school is open for instruction, it must provide the joint vocational school district board with advance notice of the proposed change. The two (2) boards must then enter into a written agreement that prescribes reasonable accommodations to meet the scheduling needs of the joint vocational school district prior to implementation of the change.

Additionally, prior to recommending to the Board any change in the hours or days in which a District school is open for instruction, the Superintendent must consider the compatibility of the proposed change with the scheduling needs of any community school to which the District is required to transport students. The Superintendent shall further consider the impact of the proposed change on a) student access to the instructional programs offered by the community school, b) transportation, and c) the timing of graduation. The Superintendent shall address the preceding issues when presenting school calendar options to the Board for its review and adoption. If the Board intends to change the hours or days in which a District school is open for instruction, the Board shall provide the sponsor, governing authority, and operator of the community school(s) with advance notice of the proposed change, and the Board and the governing authority, or operator if such authority is delegated to the operator, shall enter into a written agreement prescribing reasonable accommodations to meet the scheduling needs of the community school prior to implementation of the change.

Finally, prior to recommending to the Board any change in the hours or days in which the District schools are open for instruction, the Superintendent must consult with the chartered nonpublic schools to which the District transports students and consider the effect of the proposed change on the schedule for transportation of those students to their nonpublic schools. Similarly, the governing authority of a chartered nonpublic school must consult with the Superintendent if the District transports students to the chartered nonpublic school prior to making any change in the hours or days in which the nonpublic school is open for instruction.

Approved 11/11/13
Revised 9/3/14