Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Albert Lea school board voted 4-2 Monday to approve the calendars for the 2025-26 and 2026-27 school years, both with pre-Labor Day starts.

The calendars each include 171 student contact days, up from 169 this year, along with 11 district staff days, two professional development days and two days for parent-teacher conferences.

Board members Angie Hoffman and Dave Klatt voted against the calendars, and board member Davy Villarreal was absent.

Hoffman asked if a comprehensive survey had been done of parents about the issue and also asked how a parent could join the calendar committee, while Klatt stressed the need for more student contact days.

Ashley Mattson, executive director of Human Resources for the district, said the calendars were proposed with input from the district calendar committee, which includes 20 participants — six parents, three teacher representatives, two administrators and six representatives from other bargaining units. The committee also includes Mattson, along with Darci Rasmussen, executive assistant to the superintendent and school board, and Tonya Franks, executive director of academics and accountability.

Mattson said the committee reviewed the initial calendars Oct. 24, and then after that meeting the committee members sought feedback on the proposals before they met again Nov. 7 to discuss that feedback. She said a comprehensive survey of parents was not done, noting the feedback could come in through the representatives on the committee.

Franks said the committee looked at many different scenarios and brought many ideas to the table. She said if someone wants to be a part of the committee that would come at the recommendation of the parent-teacher organizations at the different schools.

The 2025-26 calendar begins with district staff days from Aug. 11-18, 2025, and with eighth-grade orientation on Aug. 18. The first day of school would be Aug. 19. The winter break for students would run from Dec. 24, 2025, through Jan. 5, 2026, with teachers returning on Jan. 5 for a staff day. Spring break would be March 16-20, 2026, and the last day of school would be May 27.

The 2026-27 calendar would be similar with staff starting Aug. 11, 2026, and eighth-grade orientation on Aug. 18. The first day of school again would be Aug. 19, and the winter break would run from Dec. 23, 2026, through Jan. 4, 2027, for students, with teachers returning on Jan. 4 for a staff day. Spring break would be March 15-19, 2027, and the last day of school would be May 26.

Board member Gary Schindler said he has heard from many students who like having the end of the semester in December before going on the winter break and that they can then come back for a fresh start after the break.

Franks said they had also received feedback about how the calendar aligned with exam season.

Klatt said while he has always been in favor of an early start to get more instruction in before MCA tests, he supported having more student contact days. He said there used to be 180 days, but now the state only requires 165.

He gave an example of a family who decides to leave for fall break a week early because Disney isn’t as busy then and then goes on to miss a few more days. It doesn’t take much for the days to add up and get below the recommended 165 days, he said.

He said he didn’t think two additional days were enough and said he wished it could go back to the committee.

Schindler and Klatt said they agreed that the professional development days needed to stay.

Board member Neal Skaar said he thinks the district should do everything it can to orchestrate a calendar that maximizes student contact days.

Board Chairman Kim Nelson asked how the conversation was amongst the committee for having to come back to school after Memorial Day in 2026.

Franks said the committee looked at ways to alter days, but couldn’t make a big enough change to get the school year done before Memorial Day.