by Mike Knaak
editor@thenewsleader.com
Fall 2020 is a long way off but Sartell-St. Stephen school leaders are already working on the school calendar for next year.
The school board plans to discuss a draft calendar at its Nov. 18 meeting and then approve a final version when the board meets in December.
With a later Labor Day next fall – Sept. 7 – school would not start until Sept. 8. The draft calendar shows Friday, June 4, 2021, as the last day of school.
In between those dates, school leaders are filling in other days off and special events.
In a change from past years, the draft shows schools open on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which would be Monday, Jan 18, 2021. Instead of giving students a day off, the day would be used to teach about civil rights and equality issues, as required by state statute.
The draft proposes spring break from Monday, March 29, to Friday, April 2, 2021, which would also coincide with the end of the third quarter.
If needed, school cancellation make-up days would be Feb. 15 and June 7. Because the district already schedules more than the state-required number of school days, the board can decide to forgive snow days instead of making them up, as happened last year.
The school board is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 18, at the District Service Center, 212 Third Ave. N.
Planning for the 2020-2021 school year will be a little more complicated as the last moves in the district’s building reorganization take place. Middle school students will move into the former high school, which is being remodeled now. Students in grades three through five will move to the current middle school, which will be renamed Riverview Intermediate School.
The district’s youngest students will attend the district’s two elementary schools with pre-kindergarten through kindergarten attending Oak Ridge and grades one and two attending Pine Meadow.
