A revision of the upcoming school calendar approved
By Paul Hall on Monday, June 28th, 2021 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – The La Grande School District approved a revision of the 2021-22 school year calendar at the recent board meeting. The revised calendar moved professional learning communities (late start) to Wednesday mornings from Monday mornings.
The original 2021-22 school calendar was approved March 11, 2020, just weeks before COVID-19 state mandates changed where, when and how La Grande School District students would learn. To accommodate new needs, a revision to the calendar was approved on June 10, 2020. A year later, after learning which adaptations work best for our schools, the La Grande School District sought input on a possible additional calendar change.
Three calendars were presented to staff, families and stakeholders for consideration. After receiving feedback and holding three meetings of the LGSD Calendar Committee a calendar was presented to the board and was approved.
During Comprehensive Distance Learning, students did not attend school on Wednesdays, allowing our teachers communication time with their students and to attend their professional learning community (PLC). In previous years, PLCs were held on Monday mornings and LGSD teachers saw great advantages to, instead, holding these collaborative meetings on Wednesdays.
A PLC is a group of educators that meet regularly, share expertise, and work collaboratively to improve teaching skills and the academic performance of students. LGSD teachers found the Wednesday morning PLC to be more effective because they were able to collect much better data from the previous week’s testing by the Wednesday meeting time. Analyzing assessments after lessons is imperative to improving teaching skills.
The La Grande School District is currently communicating the change to families so they may prepare for the fall. School will start on:
August 30, 2021 for grades K through 7 and for grade 9.
August 31, 2021 for grades 8, 10, 11 and 12.
The first Wednesday PLC (and first late start) will be the morning of September 1, 2021. Late start times:
Elementary late start time: 9:00 AM
Middle school late start time: 9:20 AM
High school late start time: 9:20 AM
