School board taking the year to reevaluate district calendar

Wednesday early release a hot topic

By Kendra Walker

Last month, the Gunnison Watershed School District board approved the 2024/25 calendar, and while it remains similar to this past year’s calendar, the board made clear they plan to take a deep dive to gather input and data surrounding the Wednesday early release schedule and school breaks, among other calendar items. 

During the April 8 school board meeting, several parents spoke on their concerns and firsthand experience with the issues that result from the midweek early release. Gunnison parents highlighted the lack of after school options, waitlists for the current after-school program, the added expense of finding extra childcare and unattended kids getting into trouble. 

District superintendent Dr. Leslie Nichols clarified that district staff and the school board plan to take this next year to reevaluate the calendar. 

“We’ve received really mixed opinions about so many elements of our calendar, the Wednesday early release being one of them, the differences in our vacations between the Gunnison and Crested Butte schools and the amount of teacher/student contact time,” she said. “We are taking the coming year to get thorough and detailed input from across the district so the board can hear from staff, parents and community members who run businesses that may be impacted by this structure in our calendar,” she said. “There are so many issues around the calendar that are important, so we want to get thorough, reliable data to inform the board when they’re considering the following year’s calendar. It’s one of our top three issues in the district right now.”

Board member Mandy Roberts said she felt the early release was problematic and asked that the board reconsider taking out early release Wednesdays for this coming school year’s calendar. “I’m concerned about the safety of our children,” she said.

However, the rest of the board agreed more debate and discussion was needed before making a change. 

“We have to provide the parents and citizens of the community with certainty as to what kind of calendar we’re going to have next year,” said board president Tyler Martineau. “We cannot in my view enter in the discussion of changing next year’s calendar at this point because it will take months of debate and discussion. To me that’s totally untenable.”

“These stories are touching and I see the problem, and I have also heard from people that do like the early release,” said board member Anne Brookhart. “We need to spend a good amount of time on this decision and not turn everything upside down.”

Nichols addressed the room, “In the coming year you will hear about and I hope participate in some of those data gathering efforts. Your comments and experiences really matter. But hearing about what’s happening with your kids and the waitlists, etc.…obviously we’re not providing enough.”

During a work session on April 22, the school board reviewed the Gunnison Watershed School District’s calendar history, the benefits of Wednesday early release schedule for staff and teachers, and brainstormed questions they would like to ask teachers, parents, students and the community related to the district calendar. The Crested Butte News will report on their discussion in the coming weeks.