Camas School Board to consider revised calendar following teachers’ strike

Following a teachers’ strike that caused Camas students to miss seven days of the 2023-24 school year, the Camas School Board is considering a revised calendar that would use planned inclement-weather days and shorten two planned holiday breaks. 

The school board will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 18, at the Zellerbach Administration Center, to consider the proposed calendar revisions.  

If approved, the new Camas School District 2023-24 calendar would keep Friday, June 14, as the last day of school, change the district’s inclement weather makeup days and impact Thanksgiving and winter breaks. 

Under the current Camas School District 2023-24 calendar, school was supposed to have started Aug. 28, with a Labor Day break Sept. 1-4. Instead, teachers went on strike Aug. 28, and returned to the classrooms Friday, Sept. 8. 

To make up for the seven lost school days, school district administrators have proposed a calendar that would skip an Oct. 13 in-service day, eliminate two planned inclement weather days (Feb. 16 and March 8) and shorten Camas students’ Thanksgiving break by one day (Nov. 22) and their winter break by three days (Dec. 18-20). 

The students’ spring break, set for April 1-5, would remain unchanged, as would the district’s planned high school graduate dates: June 5 (Camas Connect Academy), June 6 (Discovery High), June 7 (Camas High) and June 8 (Hayes Freedom). 

The district’s inclement weather makeup days also would change. The current calendar calls for makeup days on Feb. 16, March 8 and May 24, if needed, while the proposed calendar calls for inclement weather makeup days on May 24, June 17-18 and June 20-21, if necessary. 

Under the proposed calendar, Camas elementary students will have early release days every Wednesday and middle and high schools will have 16 early-release Wednesdays throughout the year, including Sept. 20, Oct. 4 and 18, Nov. 1 and 15 and Dec. 13 in 2023 and Jan. 3 and 17, Feb. 7 and 21, March 6 and 20, April 17, May 1 and 15 and June 5 in 2024. 

Camas School District Superintendent John Anzalone said state law requires the district to offer 180 days of instruction. 

“The state will grant no exceptions to that law because of a strike,” Anzalone said.

To view the current 2023-24 Camas School District calendar, visit camas.wednet.edu/Camas2016/wp-content/uploads/calendar-2023-24en.pdf

To view the proposed 2023-24 Camas School District calendar being considered by Camas School Board members Monday, Sept. 18, visit tinyurl.com/muc7jeca