June 6, 2022
Owasso Parents & Guardians,
As part of a special Board of Education meeting today, the Board approved an updated school calendar for the upcoming 2022-23 year as well as a new calendar for the 2023-24 year. Those calendars can be accessed on the School Calendars page on our website.
In May, a Calendar Committee was formed to re-evaluate the 2022-23 calendar and create the 2023-24 calendar. It has been the district’s practice to have multiple years of calendars published at a time in order to give families and staff the ability to plan ahead.
The committee was composed of 23 people, nine of which were parents of students in the district. It also included two teachers, five principals and seven OPS administrators. This variety of individuals and roles enabled the committee to consider several perspectives and resulted in positive changes to the calendars that will benefit students, teachers and families across the district.
The committee wanted to minimize changes to the 2022-23 calendar, as it had been available to families since July 2021. Large changes could have affected plans already made by families and staff members.
There are two items that likely will be most noticeable to you as you look at these calendars. First, we will continue the practice that began during the Spring 2022 semester of utilizing distance learning on all inclement weather days. Barring a major event that severely impacts the community, this ensures that the last day of school will not change from the posted date.
Students in all grades use Google Classroom on a regular basis, while students in grades 6-12 already carry a device to and from school each day. Should inclement weather be on the horizon, elementary students will be sent home with a device and charging cord to use for distance learning. Flexibility and grace will continue to be extended to all students and families to resolve any issues that may occur on a distance learning day.
Secondly, these calendars include a total of four days (one in each quarter) that will be used as Teacher Collaboration Days. There will be no school for students on these days, as our teachers will use this time to collaborate within their professional learning communities (PLCs) to devise ways to maximize student outcomes in the classroom.
Distance learning will not be used on Teacher Collaboration Days. Our district standard for distance learning is live instruction from an OPS teacher. Live instruction would not be possible on these days, since teachers are collaborating with each other.
Thank you for your attention to this information and we look forward to seeing your students again for the first day of the 2022-23 school year on August 11.
Sincerely,
Dr. Margaret Coates
Superintendent