2023-2024 Calendar Reverts to Aug. 16 Staggered Start

Another adjustment to the 2023-2024 academic calendar - updated again on May 15, 2023 - moves the official first day of school for students in grades K-12 back to the original date of Wednesday, Aug. 16.

With the traditional staggered start, students with last names M-Z will report on Wednesday, Aug. 16, while students with last names A-L will report on Thursday, Aug. 17 (exceptions should be communicated to your building principal). All students in grades 1-12 will report to school on Friday, Aug. 18.

Phase-in days for kindergartners will continue for two additional days on Friday, Aug. 18 and Monday, Aug. 21, with half of each kindergarten class reporting each day (specific dates to be communicated by each school). Kindergarten students will not report on Tuesday, Aug. 22, while all kindergarten students will report for the first time all together on Wednesday, Aug. 23.  

Among other changes to note:

• The last day for students, now Thursday, May 23, falls one day later than originally communicated.
• Beginning of the year staff professional development days for staff return to Aug. 11, 14 and 15. 
• March 19 is now a day off for both students and staff (not a PD day).

"We apologize for the confusion and any inconveniences recent changes to the calendar may have caused our families," said Interim Superintendent Robb Vogelmann. "After announcing the change to the start date earlier this month, we realized the issue this caused with the traditional timing of open houses and had to instead adjust the end of the school year." 

Both the printable calendar and online calendar now reflect the final schedule, which has evolved in response to the uncertainty surrounding primary election dates. For safety reasons, because most Lakota schools are used as polling locations, these dates are traditionally reserved as professional development days for staff. 

In an effort to avoid future changes, the District is reserving both the March and May potential primary election dates as days off for students. The change forced an end to the school year one day later than originally scheduled to meet Lakota’s approved number of total school hours.

All 2023-2024 calendars with a publish date prior to May 15, 2023 are no longer accurate and should be discarded.