Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. has set its schedule for the 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years.
The school board voted Monday to approve the three-year calendar, which was first presented at a previous meeting in June.
Some of the changes in the calendar, compared to previous years, center on professional development days for staff and when these will occur.
Under the approved schedule, the first Monday in August for each year will be a teacher work day, followed by a professional development day on Tuesday and the first day of school on Wednesday.
There will then be professional development days on the Friday before fall break and the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The final professional development day of the year will occur the Thursday before Good Friday in 2024-25 and the Monday after Easter in 2025-26 and 2026-27.
In comparison, the schedule for 2023-24 includes professional development days on the Tuesday after Labor Day, the Monday after Thanksgiving, President’s Day (Feb. 19) and April 8, the date of the 2024 total solar eclipse.
The school board voted in May to seek a professional development flexibility waiver for the upcoming school year regarding these days. School officials said that, assuming the waiver is approved by the state, it will allow the school corporation to proceed with its planned calendar and have 176 student days and four professional development days in the upcoming year, instead of the standard 180 instructional days.
“We intend to continue to apply for the waiver that allows for flexibility,” said Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Gina Pleak, in regards to the 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years. In the event that this annual request is denied, BCSC officials would return to the board with calendar revisions, and the scheduled professional development days would revert to student instruction days.
The school corporation also plans to continue its policy of having the first three inclement weather days of a school year — or days that are not in person for other reasons — made up via eLearning, she said. Anything after that will be made up at the end of the year.
