The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Hayden — Hayden Superintendent Mike Luppes doesn’t expect the School Board to spend much time discussing the two school calendar options before approving one tonight.

The School Board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. today at the administrative offices at 495 W. Jefferson Ave. in Hayden. Meetings typically are on the third Wednesday of each month, but scheduling conflicts forced the board to reschedule for today.

The approval of the school calendar is the primary agenda item in what is a light agenda as Hayden nears the end of the school year.

“The calendars have been through the accountability teams and the staff,” Luppes said. “There are two choices. They have the same number of Fridays off; there is just different distribution of those Fridays.”

Both calendars run from Labor Day to Memorial Day and still include a limited number of four-day school weeks, which Hayden has been using to give staff more collaboration time. One option spreads the Fridays off throughout the school year to fit with athletic schedules, parent/teacher conferences and holidays such as Thanksgiving.

For example, when the Hayden basketball teams travel to Paonia, which requires players and coaches miss a full day of school, one calendar option would give the entire school that day off.

“We tried to have some rhyme and reason,” Luppes said.

— To reach Melinda Mawdsley, call 871-4208 or e-mail mmawdsley@steamboatpilot.com