At their regular meeting on Monday, July 13, 2020, the Groton Area Board of Education adopted a revised school calendar for the 2020-2021 school year.
The new calendar moves first day of school for the new year to Wednesday, August 19, 2020. A major shift in the calendar for the year will be the inclusion of instructional planning days, typically Fridays, into the calendar. The primary purpose of those days will be to provide the teaching staff with the time and resources necessary to develop and implement hybrid forms of instruction suited for a remote learning environment. Students will not be in session on those days.
The district is continuing to prepare its back-to-school plans, part of which includes an acknowledgement that remote learning may very well be necessary during parts of the school year. At a minimum, we anticipate that student absenteeism will be higher than typical necessitating a system that will allow us to keep all of our students moving forward.
Flexibility in everything we work through during the next school year will be critical. There may be instances that require a short-term school closure during the week (e.g. typical snow days or closures for facilities cleaning). If such a situation arises, we can swap the Friday planning day with another day in the week to best maintain a continuity of learning.
The calendar adoption represents only part of the work underway to provide for the best instructional opportunities for our students during the 2020-2021 school year. Continue to check the website often for further updates.