The Benton Community Board of Education has approved a calendar recommendation for the 2018-19 school year. The calendar is available for your convenience and use on the Benton website. The school year for students will begin on Thursday, August 23rd and conclude on Friday, May 24th. If make-up days are necessary for students dates designated include May 28-31. Commencement Exercises for the Class of 2019 will be on Sunday, May 19th.
The approved calendar includes 179 student contact days and 1133.75 hours of instruction. The Iowa Department of Education allows districts flexibility in setting school calendars based on either 180 student contact days or 1080 hours of instruction. We will be operating under the instructional hour model for the 2018-19 school year.
A couple of additional features regarding the approved calendar include the following: 1) Early Dismissals for professional development, grade reporting, and parent teacher conferences have been reduced from 24 to 15 days for this purpose; 2) The PK-12 Parent-Teacher Conference dates have been set and include November 14th, November 19th, March 13th, and March 18th. Classes will be dismissed at 2:00 p.m. on these four dates with parent-teacher conferences scheduled from 2:30-7:30 on each of these dates. The remaining 11 early dismissals during the school year will be at 1:00 p.m.; and 3) the following dates will be days school is not in session and will be used for professional development work in the District: October 15th, January 2nd, February 18th.
The winter break for students will be from December 24-January 2 and the spring break for students will be from March 20-22. The first semester of the school year will be 89 days and the second semester 90 days.
