School calendars can provoke some interesting discussions.  That is exactly what happened at the Wednesday night Hamilton Southeastern School Board meeting when Superintendent Allen Bourff presented the first draft of a proposed calendar for the 2018-2019 school year.  Dr. Bourff described the calendar as similar to the one being used this school year.

Board Member Terry Tolle once again argued for a balanced school calendar, with longer fall and spring breaks, but that would require starting school much earlier.  Sylvia Shepler argued for a longer Thanksgiving break and shorter fall break.  Those are just a couple of examples of the ideas tossed out by board members, triggered by the draft calendar.

The calendar calls for school to begin for students on August 8th, 2018.  Fall break would extend from October 15th to October 19th.  Thanksgiving break would be November 21st through the 23rd (Wednesday through Friday).  Christmas break would be scheduled from December 24th through January 4th.   Spring break would begin on Friday, March 29th and go through Friday, April 5th.  The final day for students would be Friday, May 24th, unless make-up days are needed and classes would then continue into the following week.

The board took no action on the calendar at the Wednesday session.  The calendar will come before the board in a future meeting for final approval.

You can view the proposed calendar at this link.