Discussion centers around late timing of Labor Day

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The New York Mills School District is joining a growing group of local schools weighing a dramatic change in philosophy for the first day of school in the fall.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the NY Mills School Board took a look at a potential school calendar that would start school on Tuesday, Sept. 1, which would be one week prior to the traditional day after Labor Day. The change comes after the state agreed to allow school districts to start prior to the traditional start of the Labor Day holiday due to Labor Day not taking place until Sept. 7. 

If the calendar were to be approved as presented, students and staff would attend school on Tuesday through Thursday and have a four day weekend over Labor Day. The hope was starting before Labor Day would allow students to be done with school prior to Memorial Day, which would be difficult to accomplish without those three additional days at the start of the school year.

“If we don’t have those three days before we would definitely go past (Memorial Day) into June 1-3 and I think that would be hard for families as well,” said NY Mills School Superintendent Adam Johnson.

Another big change for the school calendar would be the elimination of the half days that assisted with staff development. The school calendar would allow for two full weeks of Christmas break for students, with staff members returning to school from Dec. 21-22 for staff development. There will also be three additional days for staff development that will be full days of training, instead of the traditional half days. Over the years, school board and administration members have heard concerns from parents about the large amount of half days in the schedule that are set aside for staff development.

NY Mills Elementary Principal Judith Brockway said the full days of staff development will help the school district conduct a more cohesive training for staff in grades K-12 and could enlist the help of Lakes Country Coop who could lead some of the training, especially for Tier 1, in the classroom. The assistance by Lake Country would be free to the district.

“If we are to keep the five days we have now they have it laid out what it could look like,” said Brockway. “It is important in K-12 that we are aligned with what we are doing.”

High school principal Michelle Young agreed with Brockway that having a cohesive training and alignment of programming will create a positive learning environment.

“Aligning elementary and high school together makes your system better,” she said. 

Johnson said the preliminary calendar would have 168 student contact days next year, which is similar to years past. 

The preliminary calendar was not approved by the school board, but was an opportunity for the school board to offer input regarding potentially starting school prior to the Labor Day holiday. 

The school board will discuss, and potentially approve, the 2026-27 school calendar as soon as February’s school board meeting. 

In other news

• Acknowledged the following donations: $250 from Mills Lanes and Lucky Strike Grill for the high school trap team and $1,072 from the Astera Health Foundation.

• Approved the following appointments: Dawn Barvels as a long term para sub, Craig Orlando as weight room coordinator and Teri Bauck as assistant BPA advisor.