Summer for students and staff at Hills-Beaver Creek may seem shorter than normal this year. Classes will resume on Aug. 23 following the approval of the district’s Flexible Learning Year Program application.

The application gives 25 school districts in southwestern Minnesota a chance to start their year earlier regardless of a state law that prohibits school from starting before Labor Day.

The district made the request in an effort to get more classroom time with students prior to taking standardized tests in the spring.

Now that the FLY application has been accepted, the district is committed to adopting a three-year calendar. H-BC will share a common calendar with the 24 other districts named in the application.

The new schedule begins with the start of the 2010-11 school year on Monday, Aug. 23, and ends May 20.

The districts will share eight common dates; those include start dates and staff development dates.

By scheduling common staff development days, teachers and administrators from the participating districts could meet together, which reduces costs and expands opportunities for group development.

The 2011-12 school year would start on Aug. 22, 2011, and the third year would begin on Aug. 20, 2012.

The continued approval by the state requires the district to submit an annual review of the Flexible Learning Year Program by August 15 each year. 

Included in the review must be evidence of academic progress toward academic goals set in the original application, evidence of improved professional development and evidence of how the common calendar improved teacher effectiveness and academic achievement of students. 

The districts joining Hills in an Aug. 23 start are: Adrian, Brewster, Canby, Comfrey, Edgerton, Hendricks, Ivanhoe, Jackson County Central, Lakeview, Luverne, Lynd, Marshall, Milroy, Minneota, Mountain Lake, Redwood Area, Round Lake, RTR, Sleepy Eye, Springfield, Tracy Area (Tracy and Balaton), Westbrook-Walnut Grove, Windom and Worthington.