Law change requires school calendars to align with career-tech centers, including Huot in Laconia

Schools in the Lakes Region that are just starting to develop their calendar proposals for the 2023-24 academic year have another challenge to factor in: alignment with the operational schedule of the Huot Career and Technical Center in Laconia.

Participating schools have always kept the Huot schedule in mind when setting their schedule, but before now there was no formal requirement to do so. HB 1661, passed this year, changes that with a stricter mandate:

“Each RCTEA [regional care technical education agreement] shall include a calendar conformity agreement to comply with RSA 188:E-5, VII (a) and (b) by aligning the school calendars of sending schools with the school calendars of CTE [Career and Technical Education] programs at the receiving school. Agreements shall minimize schedule conflicts to better support CTE students with as many hours as possible to fulfill their program requirements.”

The change in the law arose out of a Department of Education report that found “Host schools, sending schools, and CTE centers — even those within the same CTE region — might have varying daily bell schedules, school year start and end dates, snow closure days, and educator professional development days. These misalignments are most challenging for students attending sending schools.”

The law also revised the duration of tech ed agreements from seven years to four. The agreements must go to the commissioner of education for approval.

In discussing the changes with the Winnisquam Regional School Board, Shannon Bartlett, superintendent of schools, said the Lakes Region school districts that send students to the Huot center recently got together to go over the implications of the changes.

“Out of a 180-day school year, CTE programs have fully populated students for about 112 days, with all the conflicts and scheduling differences,” she said.

One area that can help, she said, is to cut down on early-release days. Most school districts in the area hold full-day professional development sessions rather than splitting the workshops into two afternoon sessions that require early-release days for students and cut into CTE class time.

Gilford Superintendent Kirk Beitler said his schools have nine early-release days in the teachers’ agreement.

“Any change to the teachers’ agreement would have to be negotiated between the Gilford School Board and the teachers’ union,” he said, noting that there will be no change in the operation of the Gilford schools this year. “We have just started to look at things for next year,” he said.

Teachers in the Winnisquam district are already embracing the idea of full-day professional development days.

“We have always tried to work to minimize conflicts in scheduling when possible,” said Inter-Lakes Regional School District Superintendent Mary Moriarty.

Moriarty noted that, over the past few years, “Inter-Lakes has offered transportation for students on days that we have not been in session and that the Huot Program and Winnisquam Agricultural Programs have run.”

Newfound Area School District Superintendent Pierre Couture reported, “We have begun meeting with administrators which send their students to Huot in Laconia regarding the 2023-24 school calendar. We are aligning as many professional development days and early-release days as possible.”

However, he noted, “It is impossible to align all the non-school days because of CBA [graduation] requirements from each district. Also, Laconia closes school on two days for voting; most other districts do not.”

Couture said the school district also is considering a move to open school after Labor Day, to align with the other sending schools and Laconia. Newfound schools currently open just ahead of Labor Day in a decision made several years ago to avoid extending the school year further into the hot days of June.

The Shaker Regional School District may be the least impacted by the change in the law. Superintendent Michael Tursi said Shaker has always been very closely aligned with the Laconia School District calendar.

“I believe we were off only by two days in the school calendar with Laconia, and that’s because we always have to have the second Tuesday in March off, since we’re an SB2 school district. That’s when voting takes place, and we have voting in our high school.”

Tursi added that, looking at the draft calendars, it appears that Shaker will be off by only one day next year.

Franklin also sends students to the Huot center, but Superintendent Daniel LaGallo had not responded to a request for information about the bill’s impact on SAU 18 schools as of Monday afternoon.