School Board approves the 2023-24 calendar

By MITCH MAERSCH

Ozaukee Press staff

It took approval by the electors and a waiver from the Department of Public Instruction before the Cedar Grove-Belgium School Board could approve next year’s school calendar.

The board gave its OK on March 1.

School will start on Thursday, Aug. 31, allowing for three staff days and two days of school during the same week and before the three-day Labor Day weekend, “which is what happened this year and, in surveying staff and administrators, it worked really well,” Supt. Chad Brakke told the board in December.

Starting before the state law-allowed Sept. 1 requires a waiver from DPI, which requires electors in a district and School Board approval to apply for one.

Starting Sept. 5 — no waiver required — would have made things more difficult for the construction company C.D. Smith, which is doing projects financed with the school district’s $21 million referendum that was approved last April.

The calendar also moves all the staff professional development days to Mondays. Brakke said that works better than Fridays.

“People are just more productive,” he said of Mondays, adding after a long week of teaching staff members can be a little burned out when they come in on Friday.

The first professional development day is Oct. 2. Students also have a day off on Oct. 20, the day after the second day of parent-teacher conferences, which are slated for Oct. 17 and 19.

The next professional development day is Nov. 6. The calendar maintains having no school the Wednesday through Friday during Thanksgiving week.

Winter break would be from Monday, Dec. 25, through Monday, Jan. 1.

The end of the first semester is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 12. That allows for a professional development day on Monday, Jan. 15, which is Martin Luther King Day.

The next month has the professional development day on Feb. 19 — Presidents’ Day.

Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for Feb. 13 and 15, and students wouldn’t have school on Feb. 16.

March 18 is another professional development day.

Spring break runs from Monday, March 25, through Monday, April 1.

May 6 has another professional development day. The last day of school is scheduled for Wednesday, June 5, which is a half-day for students.

Holding two sessions of summer school is in question due to the referendum construction projects. The district usually holds one session in June and another in August. Elementary School Principal Jeff Kondrakiewicz runs the program.

“Jeff’s committed to making something happen in June,” Brakke said. “We’re just not sure if August will be possible.