The Greene County School Board approved its 2015-16 calendar earlier this week.

The decision was made official following the legislature passing its change to allow for districts to start no earlier than August 23rd.  Superintendent Tim Christensen says he’s happy to have a calendar approved, but he is disappointed with the outcome by the legislature.

“I didn’t think that they would necessarily compromise.  When they finally set a (start) date, to me that’s saying it’s not about local control, it’s about the state telling us school districts when we can start.  I really don’t appreciate that.  I don’t think that they know what’s best in terms of start date for every school district.”

The 2015-16 calendar includes August 24th as the first day of school and the last day is scheduled for May 27th.  The district will continue to have early dismissals on Wednesdays for teacher professional development and graduation will be on May 22nd.  Christensen points out a new item for the calendar is a week long spring break from March 21st through the 25th.  He says the primary reason is to accommodate the annual Spanish trip.

“We’ve had some concerns that when we have 30-40 students go on those trips and miss a week of school.  We have two fantastic teachers that aren’t teaching the other kids that are still behind, we still want teachers in the classroom and students in the classroom.”

He adds that the district will still operate on the hours instead of days system to allow for more flexibility in terms of not having to make up missed time during the school year.