Dear Parents, Staff and Community Members,
With 2020 in the rearview mirror, I would like to share with you some exciting changes happening in Central Public Schools, specifically, the 2021-2022 school calendar (for next school year). The board looked at the feedback you provided in the calendar development survey and in December, adopted this calendar after several months of planning a discussion. I would like to point out a few really important changes that make this calendar much more student centered.
The school year will run from the day after Labor Day to the Friday before Memorial Day. How can we do this? We are adding 13 minutes to each school day with the specific purpose of Social/Emotional Learning for all students. A HUGE win for our kids!
The day after Labor Day (September 7), is only going to be for 6th graders and 9th graders. What are we doing on that day? We will wrap these students in a blanket of support from the MS and HS staff. They will be the only ones in school and we are going to help them with a smooth transition. Busses will transport students on this day.
Remember the way open house ran at the elementary school? My guess is that if you showed up with a couple other families you had to jockey for a minute with the teacher and the person who took the initiative got the most time. Not anymore. All elementary students will have transition conferences with their teachers; in person and 1-on-1. Additionally, teachers will be reading with your child, something we’ve always done in class, to be more efficient and create about 4 weeks of additional instructional time in literacy! The elementary school will be sending sign-up links like they have in the past in August. These conferences will be happening on Sept. 1 and Sept. 7, 2021.
*The first day of school is on Sept. 8, 2021.
*Graduation is the Friday before Memorial Day.
If someone were to ask me to describe the changes to the 2021-22 calendar in one word, I’d say personalized. We want your child to start the year on the right foot regardless of their age. Adding in dedicated social/emotional learning time will equip each child with the tools to cope with challenges and techniques to identify stressors. Moving to a Labor Day to Memorial Day calendar provides the minutes needed to implement all these positive improvements. At a future date, I will be seeing feedback on the changes made to see what we need to fully adopt, possibly adapt, or completely abandon.
Timothy Schochenmaier
Superintendent of Schools
tschochenmaier@isd108.org