Later release time to shave days off NOSD school year

The Northern Ozaukee School Board last week approved a 2018-19 calendar that will extend the school day for most students but shorten the school year by days.

Ozaukee middle and high school students will be released at 2:55 p.m., 10 minutes later than this year for middle school students and five minutes later for high school students. There will be no change to the Ozaukee Elementary School schedule.

The change will amount to an additional 14.5 hours of instructional time and allow the district to trim four days off the school calendar while still exceeding the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s minimum instructional time requirements, Supt. Dave Karrels said

Classes will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 4, and end on Friday, May 31, 2019. A date for the graduation ceremony has not been set. 

The compressed calendar will allow the district to get a jump on construction if the $14.95 million referendum is approved by voters on April 3. 

The referendum plan calls for classroom renovations, facilities and grounds maintenance, a new cafeteria that would also be used for educational purposes and community events and the conversion of the current cafeteria into an auditorium.

“We thought this (calendar) was a smart way to trim off some days at the end of the school year,” Karrels told the board. “This positions us well if our referendum does pass.”

The calendar also reflects an effort to establish a consistent spring break at the end of March. The 2019 break is from Monday, March 25, through Friday, March 29.

Karrels noted that because the break is well before Easter, which next year is on April 21, travel is typically less expensive for families that are planning vacations.