At their workshop Thursday night, Feb. 6, the Luverne School Board and administration agreed that the 2020-21 school year should start on schedule with other Minnesota schools the Tuesday after Labor Day.
Classes this current school year began Sept. 16, two weeks after Labor Day, in order to give construction workers more time at the school before staff and students returned.
The previous school year ended May 17, allowing a summer break of four months for construction.
This coming school year, construction will work around the school schedule.
“We didn’t make enough movement in the construction process (with the longer summer schedule),” said Superintendent Craig Oftedahl.
For the 2020-21 school year, the start date is Sept. 8.
Board members will approve school day hours, vacations, in-service dates, graduation date, and the last day of school no later than at the April 23 meeting.
Until then, several calendar options were discussed at the workshop.
Start times varied from 8 a.m. to 8:15 a.m., the later time suggested by high school principal Ryan Johnson.
“Research says to give kids the more sleep time the better,” he said.
The school day would end at 3:15 or 3:30 p.m.
For two years, classes began at 8 a.m. and ended at 3:30 p.m.
The extra half hour a day allowed for the school year to end in early to mid-May to provide for more construction time.
For the longer school days, the middle-high school adopted a program called Flex Time, which allowed students and staff a half hour a day for student enrichment activities, making up tests or seeking additional study help.
Johnson said after the meeting that the middle-high school would consider keeping Flex Time, adopting the program to a normal school day schedule.
Because Thursday’s meeting was a work session, board members did not take formal action on calendar options.
The board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is Feb. 27 with community input at 6:30 p.m. and the meeting at 7 p.m.