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School Calendar Development

2023-24 School Year and Beyond

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Tonight:

What factors influence the calendar?
What makes for a “good” school calendar?
Scenario Planning: 2023-24
Scenario Planning: Multi-Year Outlook
Next Steps

Scarsdale Public Schools www.scarsdaleschools.org

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student's full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an interdependent world.

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What factors influence the calendar?

State laws, requirements, and minimums

180 days; 900 or 990 hours
Certain holidays under the general construction law
Timing of assessments (3-8 tests; Regents exams; AP exams)

Collective bargaining agreements

Tradition, past practice, values

Scarsdale Public Schools www.scarsdaleschools.org

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student's full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an interdependent world.

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What makes for a “good” school calendar?

Meaning may differ from stakeholder to stakeholder

Maximize instructional continuity

Minimize the disruption of instructional time

Meet federal, state, and local requirements

Reflect Board policy, including Equity, Inclusivity, & Diversity (#0105)

Honor our collective bargaining agreements, including past practices

Be responsive to student/family interests, needs, concerns

Scarsdale Public Schools www.scarsdaleschools.org

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student's full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an interdependent world.

What makes for a “good” school calendar?

There are a variety of influences impacting the development of a school calendar, and “good” likely means different things to different people. However, there are some long-standing norms that serve as overarching guideposts for calendar development.

The calendar should be crafted, where possible, to maximize instructional continuity, and minimize the disruption of instructional time.
The calendar must conform to federal, state, and local requirements (including Board policy), including the requirements for receiving our share of State Aid.
The calendar must honor our collective bargaining agreements, including past practices.

There is an order of operations to these priorities. Following the laws and regulations that govern our work as a public school is paramount. It is also essential that we observe the commitments reflected in our collective bargaining agreements, or contracts. When these obligations are met, the rest of the decisions are expressions of those values we believe we have consensus on. We are approaching the 2nd anniversary of the Board’s adoption of policy #0105, Equity, inclusivity and diversity in education. I have been listening to the public comment and reading the emails and letters we have received from students and families about observances important to a significant segment of our community through the lens of that policy. What I hear is that, while we all have to make difficult choices in life, students in our community feel like they are being asked to make a choice - to attend school or tend to an extremely important religious tradition- that others in our community do not have to make because our schools are closed on some of those observances already. It is in that spirit that we have explored the possibility of adding new days of school closure to our calendar not traditionally observed in Scarsdale.

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Sample Possible Calendars for 2023-24

Adding new observances

Diwali, Lunar New Year, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha

Most of the “traditional” calendar remains the same
Diwali, Lunar New Year fall on weekends
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha fall during the week.
NYS has decided no Regents exams on Eid al-Adha (so potentially not a day of session for SHS)
2024 is a rare year when Passover and Easter are separated by nearly a month.

“Traditional” mirroring past practices

Faculty starts prior to Labor Day
Students on 9/5/23
Rosh Hashanah on a weekend
10 day December break
Full Feb, Apr breaks
Friday before Memorial Day off
Last day (“Rating Day”) Weds, Jun 26

Draft Possible Calendar (traditional)

Draft Possible Calendar (new observances)

Scarsdale Public Schools www.scarsdaleschools.org

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student's full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an interdependent world.

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Projected Possible Calendars

Some years more challenging than others

One year (25-26) in the next 5 with all 4 previously unobserved holidays on potential school days (happens again in 28-29).

Some years Rosh Hashanah and/or Yom Kippur fall on weekends or Juneteenth falls on Saturday (therefore not observed).

Alternatives to past practice that could be considered in years with a shorter window:

Hold 1 or more SCDs on an observance day.
Hold a student day on Election Day, move SCD to an observance day.
Observe 1 day for Rosh Hashanah.
Start students before Labor Day.
Shorten a break (Dec, Feb, or Apr).
Schedule fewer than 185 days.

Scarsdale Public Schools www.scarsdaleschools.org

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student's full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an interdependent world.

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10 Year Outlook

Analysis of Holidays

Range of School Days Impacted:

Minimum of 3, Maximum of 7

Holidays falling on weekends:

Green = Falls on Weekend

Yellow = Potential Break Week

Rosh Hashanah (3x)
Yom Kippur (3x)
Diwali (3x)
Lunar New Year (3x)
Eid al-Fitr (2x)
Eid al-Adha (3x)
Juneteenth (2x)

Scarsdale Public Schools www.scarsdaleschools.org

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student's full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an interdependent world.

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Next Steps

Time for stakeholder input, questions, considerations

Information/Discussion item on 1/9/23 BOE Agenda

Continued dialog with STA

Determination of Parent-Teacher Conference (½) Days

Recommendation to BOE for adoption on 2/13/23

Scarsdale Public Schools www.scarsdaleschools.org

The Scarsdale Public Schools seek to sponsor each student's full development, enabling our youth to be effective and independent contributors in a democratic society and an interdependent world.