Littleton School Committee Approves Split Calendar With Three Friday Half-Days

LITTLETON -- February 29, 2024, Littleton School Committee approves 2024-2025 calendar splitting professional development days seven Wednesdays to three Fridays. The committee voted 3-1-1 at its February 29 meeting to adopt a compromise calendar presented by Director of Teaching and Learning Beth Steele after a first motion to accept the proposal failed for lack of majority. LEA President Kelly Hart had told the committee that 78 percent of 100 surveyed members chose Wednesday as their preferred professional development day, warning that a prior year's experiment with more Friday days caused attendance to "go down so drastically" that those days were eliminated the following year. Special education teacher Rosaria Colches and second-grade teacher Shayna Garlisi argued that Fridays also harm students, citing learning regression over extended weekends and food insecurity among students who rely on Friday hot lunches. The motion that passed, offered by committee member Matt, retained the three Friday professional development days from Steele's compromise but moved the fall parent-teacher conference from November 20 to Friday, November 15, placing both annual conference days on Fridays. The committee also received a 16-year energy management summary from Energy Manager Dave Riley showing cumulative savings of $3,363,958 and a 6,417-ton reduction in CO2 emissions across the district.