TCS committee presents proposed calendars

TIFFIN – At the Tiffin City Schools Board of Education meeting Monday evening, the Calendar Committee presented proposed calendars for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school year. Superintendent Ben Richards explained the calendar committee was formed to make a school calendar based on information collected from the community. Samantha Cole, Spanish teacher at Tiffin Columbian High School, presented the proposed 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school year calendars on behalf of the calendar committee. She first discussed the make up of the committee which includes teachers, some of whom are TEA members, and administrators. The committee started its efforts to create new calendars by collecting data from TEA members. Those members had the following top 3 priorities in creating a new calendar. Moving the start date back Ending the school year in May Providing workdays at the end of quarters While members mostly agreed on these top 3 priorities, the opinions on the length of spring break were 50/50. The data acquired from TEA members and anecdotal data from the community were used to create three draft calendars. Those calendars were then shared with TEA and members of the community in a survey. The survey saw 83 responses from TEA members and 329 responses from members of the community with a total of 413 responses. The first draft calendar was the closest to the current calendar, however, the start date was pushed back by one week. Cole said issues with this calendar came from the fact that students would have to return to school after Memorial Day, which is not typically done. TEA members and the community also did not like the second draft calendar as professional development days were mostly before the start of the school year. Cole said people were concerned that educators would not get the opportunity to work on issues that could arise throughout the school year. The third calendar was a favorite among both TEA members and the community. This calendar was the basis for the calendars that were proposed on Monday evening. The committee then met again in November to analyze the results of the survey. Since calendar three was the favorite among those surveyed, the committee worked to improve that calendar based on other data and suggestions proposed by survey takers. Proposed calendars 2024-2025 Staff start date: 8/21 Student start date: 8/27 Winter break: 12/23 - ½ Staff return: 1/3 for a personal development day Students return: 1/6 First semester ends: 1/16 Spring break: 4/17 - 4/21 Students and staff end: 5/23 172 total student days 185 total staff days 2025-2026 Staff start: 8/20 Students start: 8/26 Winter break: 12/22 - 1/1 Staff return: ½ for a professional development day Students return: 1/5 First semester ends: 1/16 Spring break: 4/2 - 4/6 Student and staff end: 5/22 172 student days 185 staff days The goals achieved in the proposed calendars are: a later start date, ending before Memorial Day, teacher work days after every quarter, spring break Thursday, Friday, Monday and the inclusion of flex days. Flex days which were proposed by Richards provide time within a district calendar to honor the work teachers do on a personalized level. For the upcoming calendars, flex days do the following: 1 day – provides time for the completion of public school works online training 1 day – counts as the final teacher work day which allows staff to complete final items at a different time 1 day – is determined by each building's leadership team to attend to specific needs of different grade levels If the memorandum of understanding for flex days is not approved, those days would be added to the calendars at the end of the school year but would not affect student days. Richards explained that the board is not being asked to vote at this time as the idea is to get the proposed calendar out to the public for feedback. The intention is to return to the school board with the calendars for approval in January. The board approved the following action items: 8.1 - resolution to join the Ohio School Council's natural gas consortium 8.2 - renewal of Ohio School Board Association membership 8.3 - extension of the lease agreement with GD Century Farms 8.4 - Set the organizational meeting for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 8 at the Tiffin Middle School in the cafetorium, 103 Shepherd Dr. 8.5 - Dr. Meagan McBride to continue her role as president of the school board until the organizational meeting. 8.6 - Dustin Williams to continue his role as vice president of the school board until the organizational meeting. The board then entered into an executive session to consider the employment of a public employee. The next meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Jan. 22 at the Tiffin Middle School in the cafetorium, 103 Shepherd Dr.