LCSD Calendar Committee Underway

Every three years, the Lake County School District takes a deep look at the school district calendar with an interest in the questions: Does the current district calendar meet our students’, staff members’ and families’ needs? Are there alternatives to the current calendar that would better meet those needs? Does the current calendar best support student academic achievement?

Because the 2019-20 calendar will be the first calendar in the new 3-year cycle, LCSD has convened a volunteer Calendar Committee with over 20 members from a variety of stakeholder groups. The committee will be working over the next few months to research the effectiveness of the current calendar and to explore other potential calendar models.

The committee will be collecting extensive stakeholder input as part of this process through surveys, meetings and conversations. It is important that students, teachers, staff, parents and community members all have a voice in the process. At the end of the research and stakeholder input processes, the committee will make a recommendation to the Board of Education, which approves the calendar.

Some facts about the current calendar:

• The current LCSD calendar is a traditional calendar, starting in mid-August and ending at Memorial Day.
• It includes 164 student days and 179 teacher days.
• It has 58% 5-day school weeks and 42% 4-day school weeks.
• The 4-day school weeks are associated with holidays and teacher professional development days. Get Outdoors Leadville! offers programming for students on several of the teacher professional development days. Tuition is collected on a sliding scale. LCHS also organizes college visits on some days when school is closed for students.

While the committee is in the process of exploring alternate calendar models, no decisions or formal recommendations have been made. We want to hear from the community about what they believe will work best for Lake County and our students’ educational needs. If you have questions or comments about the work of the Calendar Committee, please contact Kate Bartlett, facilitator: 719-486-6835, kbartlett@lakecountyschools.net.