Los Alamos Reporter

LAPS To Propose School Schedules To Meet New PED Requirements, Seeking Input On 2024-25 School Year Calendar

BY JENNIFER GUY
Superintendent
Los Alamos Public Schools

Today (Thursday) the Public Education Department released the Learning Time rule changes to NMAC 6.10.5. and memo with district directions. These changes were as expected and will have some impact on the school calendar at LAPS.

The rule will require that LAPS has at least 180 instructional days and has 1140 instructional hours. These are the same requirements that we had during the current school year. One change is that this rule requires that student days are at least 5.5 hours at the elementary level. This means that elementary early release Wednesdays are no longer allowed. We will have to adjust our instructional day at the elementary school for the 2024-25 school year. These changes will impact the times at the secondary level as well so that we can provide required transportation. 

We will be proposing the following changes to the daily school schedule (these times​ may change slightly as we work with ​schools on the details of schedules​):

Elementary – 7:45 – 2:30 (including Wednesdays) 

LAMS – 8:20 – 3:20

LAHS – 8:30 – 3:30 

Some positives for the proposed changes: 

  • Later start time for older students
  • Gives Elementary teachers 2 extra hours of planning time each week
  • Allows us to serve hot lunch on Wednesdays to elementary students

If you would like to provide input on considerations for the 2024-25 school calendar, please click here. The school board will approve a final calendar in April. The current approved draft calendar is posted here. 

I believe that we can take these changes as an opportunity to meet our strategic goals that 100% of our students will be successful.