Most still in favor of 4-day week; calendar approved
With an overwhelmingly positive response to this year’s four-day school week, Holyoke School District will continue with a similar schedule in the 2022-23 school year. A calendar was approved at a short meeting of the board of education prior to a board retreat Wednesday, Feb. 16, at Sunset View.
Of those who completed a survey, 92% of parents, 90% of students and 100% of staff members were in favor of four-day weeks, reported Superintendent Kyle Stumpf.
“We looked at every single comment,” he said, noting that the district will want more feedback in the years to come as they continue to tweak the calendar.
Aug. 2 will be a registration day for the district. School will begin with a “soft start” and a shortened week for students. The JR/SR high will kick off the year Wednesday, Aug. 17. That same day there will be parent-teacher conferences for the elementary, followed by the first day of school for K-6 on Thursday, Aug. 18. There will be school Friday, Aug. 19 — one of only three Fridays when school will be held.
There will not be school Mondays, Nov. 14, 2022, and Jan. 16, 2023, due to BOCES teacher inservices, and as a result, there will be school in Holyoke on Fridays, Nov. 18, 2022, and Jan. 20, 2023.
Parent feedback was taken into consideration to limit the number of Fridays that school is in session, said Stumpf.
He said the district also made modifications to parent-teacher conference schedules based on staff feedback. Conferences will be from noon-8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, and Friday, March 3, 2023.
Another change is that the last day of school, Thursday, May 25, 2023, will be a full day instead of a half day for students. Graduation is Sunday, May 21, which continues a request of it not being on Mother’s Day.
In addition to no school on Fridays (with a few exceptions), other scheduled days off include Monday, Sept. 5, for Labor Day; Wednesday-Friday, Nov. 23-25, for Thanksgiving; Friday, Dec. 16-Monday, Jan. 2, for Christmas/New Year’s; and Friday, March 10-Friday, March 17, 2023, for spring break.
Stumpf also said that the district has some grant money to launch a food program that could potentially start this spring and provide food that students can take home for weekend meals. When the district switched to four-day weeks, there was some concern that students would be missing out on nutritious meals on Fridays since they wouldn’t be at school on those days.
He added that the district has been making an effort to schedule more events on Fridays so that students aren’t missing classroom time, but they still have a way to go.
Superintendent contract approved
At last week’s meeting, the board approved a superintendent contract with Stumpf for July 1, 2022-June 30, 2024, at a salary of $109,200 for the first year and $111,384 for the second year.
The board also approved the resignations of JR/SR high social studies teacher Micah Mehl, high school baseball coach Sherman Kage and JR/SR high paraprofessional Kristen Tucker.
Extra-duty assignments for high school athletics approved last week include Nick Flaa, head girls golf coach; Jimmy French, head baseball coach; Kody Timm, assistant baseball coach; and Cordell Walker, volunteer assistant baseball coach.