Area 30 Board discusses 2024-25 calendar needs

The goal being aligned as much as possible, Area 30 Career Center’s interlocal board put 2024-25 calendars together at its regular meeting Tuesday morning.

With Executive Director Chad Nunley noting first that their calendars are set before he looks at Area 30’s, the superintendents came to a consensus especially with breaks as students are out of school.

They went off of North Putnam’s tentative calendar provided by Interim Supt. Carrie Milner. With its fall break the week of Oct. 14, Christmas break would be Dec. 23 through Jan. 3, 2025, while spring break would be March 24-28. Milner also noted flex days set on Feb. 17 and April 18 of 2025.

Supt. Greg Linton provided Cloverdale Schools has set a snow day for Jan. 20, 2025, but that its calendar was essentially the same. Supt. Corey Smith concurred for South Putnam barring some “tweaks,” including moving a flex day from April 21 to April 18 (Good Friday) in 2025.

“That’s the biggest thing, is making sure we’re aligned, because we have so many shared services with ONT (Old National Trail) and between all the different schools,” Smith said for his part.

Supt. Wesley Hammond noted that Eminence would continue to take Good Friday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents’ Day off. Otherwise from fall break and Christmas break, he said Eminence would match the others.

“We’re not too drastically different on the calendar,” Greencastle Supt. Jeff Gibboney said, saying that its spring break could go the last week of March. “It’d be really great if we could come to an agreement sometime about when we’re gonna have fall break and spring break.”

“You hate to let the (Covered) Bridge Festival drive us, but I know North Putnam, that's a real disaster for them,” Hammond commented. “Spring break, I think, we say it’s gonna be the last week or the third week, and we stick with it.”

Ultimately, with Greencastle being the outlier and Gibboney providing flexibility, the board agreed that spring break would be that last full week in March.

With Smith noting that a professional development day could be replaced with a parent-teacher day, North Putnam, Cloverdale and South Putnam would all start on Aug. 6, 2024. Otherwise, the calendars are close now.

Everything considered, Nunley said he would likely bring Area 30’s calendar to the board this coming January.

In other business:

• The board ratified a one-year contract with Area 30’s certified employee organization.

• The board approved pay increases for all of Area 30’s part-time and full-time non-certified staff. Nunley noted that the increases were “on par” with the school corporations, particularly on the hourly rate.

Nunley also noted that staff will attend a professional development session on individualized education plans (IEPs) led by Old National Trail Director Joe Kwisz on Nov. 20.

With Asst. Director Sharon Bone absent, Treasurer Cindy Burnham joined Nunley and the board for the meeting.

The next regular meeting of the Area 30 Board is set for Tuesday, Dec. 12 at 9 a.m. in the Old National Trail conference room.