Ballard Weekly Update

Developing the Academic Calendar

We have begun our internal committee work to develop the 2025-26 academic calendar. As we worked through this process last year, I appreciated hearing that you have questions about this process. In particular, I believe you wondered why the community was not involved more, especially when I am continuously promoting transparency, input, and feedback opportunities. In reality, we do want your input, but we also understand that we have much work to do before we are ready for that input. 

The academic calendar not only addresses student attendance days (start date, breaks, and end date), it also includes contract days for our teachers and hourly employees, including days when students are not in attendance. The committee that works on these details includes 2-3 teachers from each building, building administrators, our Director of Teaching & Learning, our Director of Special Programs, and myself. We take into consideration changing needs for professional development, collaboration, and work days, all of which support our ability to provide a strong academic year for our students.

Once the committee has worked through these details and taken feedback from all employees, we will be ready for community feedback. There will be several opportunities to provide feedback once a draft of the proposed calendar is made public around January 20. Input will be taken at the regularly scheduled School & Community Forums on January 21, January 28, and February 3. Additionally, the school board meeting on February 10 will include the annual, required public hearing on the proposed calendar. 

The complexities to be navigated in this process all center around our primary purpose, to provide high quality educational experiences for each child. As we navigate the process, we are mindful of all four of our district Core Values, that Each Child Matters, Each Employee Matters, Each Partner Matters, and that we Have a Plan & Live the Plan. Thank you in advance for the feedback you will be providing.

Revising the Strategic Plan

As we started our 2024-25 school year, we shared a newly developed strategic plan, which we call the Ballard Flight Plan. If you didn’t get a chance to see it at the time, we encourage you to view the Ballad Portrait of Graduate & District Flight Plan Video  that offers an explanation of our collective work around developing the plan, as well as how the plan directly supports the Ballard Portrait of a Graduate. 

Releasing a strategic plan is really only the beginning. Throughout the months since, we have continuously used our four core values to ground our work and our decisions. 

Core Value 1: Each Child Matters

At the heart of Core Value 1 is the emphasis we place on meeting the unique needs of each student through the structures within the High Reliability Schools Framework. We continue to stretch ourselves in how we use data and information about our student learning needs to plan for instruction. This includes study groups around best practices with artificial intelligence tools, the Character Strong curriculum, and tools that we can use to guide the work of our collaborative teams. 

Core Value 2: Each Employee Matters

At the heart of Core Value 2 is employee voice. We have recently undergone an extensive study of our Teacher Leader program that included widespread teacher input. We continuously look for ways to gather other input from all employees through conversations, surveys, and forums to be sure we understand the experience of being part of the Ballard employee community. 

Core Value 3: Each Partner Matters

Partnerships take many forms, and we recognize that we can continue to grow our work in this core value exponentially. The feedback and input you continue to provide is really only the beginning. For now, we highlight the newly developed district FAQ that we will continue to refine, as well as the opportunities you continue to respond to, such as Forums, surveys, and community based meetings.

Core Value 4: Have a Plan & Live the Plan

This is where it all comes together. We are in the process of crafting new building level Flight Plans, as well as a Flight Plan for our transportation department, and another for our activities department. We also have a new enrollment study forthcoming that will be made public as part of the January 23 Regular School Board Meeting. The bottom line is that we must be intentional with all that we do. Excellence will not come by waiting for things to happen. We are here to plan our future together in alignment with our four Core Values and through our strategic plan.

District Flight Plan

Ballard Portrait of a Graduate

Core Value 3: Each Partner Matters

Thank you for your participation in our community engagement survey throughout November and December. We received 60 responses, which along with a similar activity with our School Improvement Advisory Committee in early November, gives us additional insight into the work we need to continue to do to support our partnerships with all of you. 

You may recall from earlier communication that we are framing our work on community engagement in the following manner:

Your feedback reiterates to us that while we are making gains with transparency and communication, we still have room for growth in both areas throughout the district. In addition, the feedback on partnerships could be best characterized as you feel “unclear.” We agree and have begun the work of redefining what partnerships between a school and their community should look like in 2025. As you often hear from me as I share these updates, stay tuned. I promise you we are hard at work in our continuous improvement efforts. While I may not always be sharing concrete plans, our efforts to be transparent include updates such as these. 

2025-2026 Academic Calendar

Our internal committee has completed their study to develop a recommendation for the 2025-26 academic calendar. As a reminder, the academic calendar not only addresses student attendance days (start date, breaks, and end date), it also includes contract days for our teachers and hourly employees, including days when students are not in attendance. Because of these elements, we engage the help of an internal committee that includes 2-3 teachers from each building, building administrators, our Director of Teaching & Learning, our Director of Special Programs, and myself. We take into consideration changing needs for professional development, collaboration, and work days, all of which support our ability to provide a strong academic year for our students.

With their work complete and feedback opportunities for all employees also complete, we are ready to share with our community and offer opportunities for feedback. Please consider attending the School & Community Forum in the Middle School cafeteria on February 3. Additionally, the school board meeting on February 10 will include the annual, required public hearing on the proposed calendar.

2025-2026 District Calendar – Proposed

Enrollment Study

The district has enlisted the services of RSP & Associates to conduct a refreshed enrollment study to guide future planning. It is an interesting report that takes into consideration our enrollment history, population and demographic trends, housing market analysis, and potential growth analysis to create a projection model that we can use to guide planning. At a high level, it confirms our need to stay conservative in our financial projections. Large decreases in state revenue and an uncertainty for how resources will be provided for public education further support this conservative approach. The report also reiterates that we have the facility capacity to accommodate forecasted growth for the next five years. 

While this does not match earlier projections that showed strong enrollment growth, it is certainly not to be considered bad news. It is simply our current reality given the state of population trends and economic factors in our area. And it gives us clarity as we continue to implement our strategic plan and continuously strive for improvement. Please reach out to any administrator, including myself, or board members if you have questions.

2025-2026 Academic Calendar Approval

Ballard 2025-2026 Academic Calendar

On Monday, February 10th, the Ballard School Board approved the 2025-2026 academic calendar. The first day of school for the 2025-2026 school year will be Monday, August 25th and is attached for your reference.

We look forward to another successful school year ahead!

Winter weather has finally come to visit. Please keep in mind that if there is an evening announcement, it will be shared no later than 9:00 p.m. Morning announcements will be announced no later than 6:00 a.m. if at all possible. 

With the cancellation on February 12, April 25 will now be a student attendance day.