Board approves 2026-27 school calendar

CLINTONVILLE – After being presented with three calendar options for the 2026-27 school year, the Clintonville Board of Education chose the calendar option that has the last day of school scheduled for June 4, 2027.
Approval from the board came at its Jan. 12 meeting, but it required two votes for a school calendar to be approved. The calendar option that the board chose has graduation scheduled for May 28, 2027. That calendar option also does not include a full week for spring break. Instead, it includes no school days on the Friday and Monday around Easter.
The first two calendar options Clintonville Superintendent Troy Kuhn presented to the board included as close to 175 student contact days as possible. A student contact day is a day that students are required to attend school. One of those calendar versions included a full week for spring break, while the other did not include that full week for spring break.
Kuhn said he surveyed the district’s staff and 56% of them preferred not to have a full week for spring break so the school year would end sooner, while 44% of staff wanted a full week for spring break.
Of that 44% of staff who wanted a full week for spring break in the 2026-27 calendar, Kuhn said that was because based on tradition, the calendar would include a full week for spring break.

“Traditionally its (full week for spring break) every other year, that’s what Clintonville has done,” Kuhn said. “No, it’s not written anywhere, but traditionally that’s what we’ve done.”
Board member Ben Huber pointed out that the version without a spring break does include two days off around Easter.
While the first two options for the school calendar included 175 and 174 student contact days, Kuhn said he created a third calendar version that would allow for students to be done by Memorial Day. This version would shorten the student contact days by three days. But to accomplish that, Kuhn said some random off days throughout the years were eliminated.
Based on past feedback from the board and research he gathered, Kuhn said it would be a good idea to have a full week of spring break in the 2026-27 school year.
Board member Christopher Hoffmann said he preferred the third calendar version. The third calendar version had the least amount of contact days for students at 172.
Huber said cutting student contact days “would do a disservice to the students in general.”
“That’s why they’re here, to learn and they can’t learn if they’re not here,” Huber said.
Kuhn said it was difficult assembling the calendar because Labor Day is on Sept. 7.
Board Treasurer Jason Moder said he also preferred the third calendar version. That’s the version with less contact days for students.
Huber made a motion that the board adopt the first calendar version, which included a full week of spring break, and school ending on June 9, 2027.
Board Clerk Klint Barkow questioned how much students would be learning when they are attending school in June.
Huber said he was concerned about the length of time off between the end of one school year and the beginning of the next school year. He said the longer that time period is, the more the information they do not retain from the previous year.
The motion was defeated 3-4. Voting in favor of the motion were Huber, Board President Glen Drew Lundt, and Board Vice President Kris Strauman.
After that motion was defeated, Strauman made a motion for the board to approve the second version of the calendar.
That motion passed 6-1, with Hoffmann voting no.