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FRAMINGHAM – Framingham Public School Superintendent Bob Tremblay has unveiled his draft 2023-24 school calendar today, January 27.
The 9-member elected Framingham School Committee will discuss it for the first time on Wednesday, February 1.
The School Committee will need to vote on the calendar before it is official.
The new calendar “model reflects feedback from months of school residencies and conversations with staff across the district. The calendar development considers many factors, including contractual obligations, student learning time requirements, school day requirements, caregiver/staff conferences, student screening needs, and professional development needs, among other logistics and is reviewed annually and collaboratively with FPS District Offices and leadership from the Framingham Teachers Association, Framingham Administration Association, and Massachusetts Laborers’ District Council on behalf of Local No. 1156, Laborers’ International Union of North America, AFL-CIO,” wrote Supt. Tremblay.
New this year is a staff appreciation day the day before Thanksgiving, which means a longer holiday break for families.
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Also new this year is a “PreK & Kindergarten Professional Development (PD) Day.
Under the proposal, “on September 5, 2023, Preschool and Kindergarten teachers will receive specific professional development that is geared toward the practices and strategies that support our youngest learners. This time will also allow for collaborative planning across schools to strengthen our Tier I practices for all students.”
“BLOCKS and Kindergarten students will begin together on September 6, 2023 and students in Grades 1-12 will begin on August 30, 2023,” under the draft calendar.
Also new this year is late start days
“Educators continue to support a diverse student population. Late start dates will allow for targeted professional development which includes, but is not limited to, topics like Social Emotional Learning, strategies to support Multilingual Learners, and Equity, Diversity and Community Engagement. These late starts will be a new addition to the professional development model we have in Framingham and will allow all professional development attendees to have the same start/end time, regardless of their regular school hours. The District is utilizing these days in addition to whole day professional development days so that the focus can be on the individual schools’ specific needs,” wrote Tremblay to the School Committee.
“Framingham High School is requesting a delayed start eight times during the second semester of the 2023–2024 school year to accommodate both MCAS/ACCESS testing. Because FHS is testing between 650 to 750 students at a time on these required assessments, it requires a significant amount of staff support to accommodate the needs of students. All staff members will be asked to assist in proctoring full classrooms or small group testing classrooms. It also allows FHS to ensure ideal test environments for all of our learners which we hope will also lead to improved results on standardized test performance. On these days breakfast will be served for students who are taking the assigned assessments and lunch will be served for all students,” wrote Tremblay.
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“Early Release Collaboration Days at Framingham High School (FHS) a. Framingham High School (FHS) will maintain the use of Early Release Collaboration Days as in previous years. This year based on feedback received, these dates will be memorialized in the school calendar for clarity and transparency. The purpose of these days are to engage in department based time where curriculum work can move forward. On these days, students will be dismissed at 1:00pm and lunch will be served,” wrote Supt. Tremblay.
“In previous versions of the calendar, the top left corner was dedicated to listing various religious or cultural holidays observed or acknowledged in our community. Instead of listing those dates in the new version of the calendar, we will link to a supplemental calendar outlining religious, cultural, or days of appreciation that are typically observed,” wrote Supt. Tremblay in a memo to the 9-member School Committee. “We believe this supplemental calendar effort will simplify the view of the primary calendar, which has become increasingly crowded and overwhelming with information in an effort to be more inclusive of our community in recent years, so that staff and families can easily identify when school is or is not in session.”
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The proposed graduation day is Thursday, June 6.
The 180th day is Monday, June 17.
Proposed no school days:
September 4 is Labor Day
September 25 is Yom Kippur
October 2 – professional development
October 9 is Indigenous People’s Day
November 10 is Veterans Day
November 22 – staff appreciation day
November 23 – Thanksgiving
November 24 – Thanksgiving break
December 25-29 – Holiday Vacation
January 1 – New Year’s Day
January 15 is Martin Luther King Jr.
February 19-23 — Winter Vacation
March 29 is Good Friday
April 11 – professional development
April 15-19 – Spring Vacation
May 2 – FTA/Professional Development
May 27 is Memorial Day
June 19 is Junteenth, if there are snow days.
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