School Year Calendar 2018-2019 (10 minutes) vote required

Transcript (~4 min @ 58:39)

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▶ 58:35 Speaker 4: passes unanimously thank you for that the final item under policy and planning this evening is the 2018-2019 school year calendar the proposed calendar is in the packet if I may begin with a query madam superintendent regarding religious holidays does the language do not schedule school activities on the day of or evening prior mean no homework no practices no games no rehearsals no nothing is that right that is correct any further discussion any further

▶ 59:05 Speaker 4: discussion please miss McAllister I had a question from a parent and I couldn't

▶ 59:08 Speaker 1: answer so I have to ask why August 31st the Friday before Labor Day is do we not

▶ 59:17 Speaker 3: have school that day it's contractual agreement so just because it's a

▶ 59:20 Speaker 3: contractual agreement with the MEA okay basically it's not unusual okay many many districts do it in exchange for starting before Labor Day that was that was the contractual agreement with many unions across the state thank you and

▶ 59:34 Speaker 1: then the other question I got was the half day before February vacation the so

▶ 59:45 Speaker 3: that's a contractual agreement also okay thank you any further discussion

▶ 59:54 Christine Casatelli: please I had a question from a certain 12 year old at home who wanted to know why we no longer get November 1st off why November 1st why did we ever get

▶ 1:00:03 Speaker 3: November 1st off it's the day after Halloween eyes no we used to did we really yeah when years not in years but we did your 12 year old but we

▶ 1:00:22 Speaker 4: did right yeah long time ago yeah yes how does your 12 year old know that ms gaston the toilet

▶ 1:00:26 Speaker 3: paper had to be cleaned up all over town that was the pd day though that was the new school for

▶ 1:00:35 Speaker 4: students but it was the pd day yeah oh okay teachers were always working kids could stay

▶ 1:00:37 Speaker 3: home with their candy any further discussion so just may I please election day just so that you know again it throughout Middlesex Merrimack Valley is the section is the superintendent's roundtable it's 40 odd communities and many of us have gone to the Election Day because we do a combined PD for low incident subjects that we all can't provide so it's called NPN Northern Professional Educators Network we have 3,000 staff convening in multiple schools across the Middlesex County to share PD on that day so that's become a very important day to keep in our calendar so people like all your occupational therapists speech pathologists physical phys ed people

▶ 1:01:46 Speaker 3: some of your foreign language people music we share resources and we do professional development across the region on that day so that day will stay so that's the explanation to Rosie why it's now that day any further discussion

▶ 1:02:06 Speaker 4: seeing none all in favor and the motion to approve the calendar carries unanimously and that concludes our policy and planning portion of the