Extended school year will end June 6

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HURON — With the hope that Mother Nature will co-operate for the rest of the year, a modification to the school calendar, which sets Thursday, June 6, as the official last day of school, was approved by the Huron School Board of Education at Monday night’s meeting. A total of nine snow days affected the district this winter, a number that outpaces every year for the past two decades.
The proposal outlined that student contact days will be shortened by two days, and also noted that these days are compensated for as the school calendar already significantly exceeds minimum attendance of hours at all grade levels.
The board ratified the teacher contracts made during recent negotiation sessions, which were also approved by the Huron Education Association.
Highlighted in the package are staff wages and salaries, health insurance and benefits, professional staff hiring schedule and extra duty schedules.

Following the Huron School Board election held on Tuesday, April 9, the official canvas sheet was reviewed and approved by the board.
A report was given by Roger Ahlers, the district’s Director of Technology, highlighting updates in the school district’s technology department with a summary of the year thus far, and looking forward at goals for next year.
“We started off the year with 750 new IPads at the high school for staff and students. We implemented those and have been using them all year. We were also able to take the old IPads that were at the high school and move them to the elementary and middle schools to replace older devices that were outdated,” Ahlers explained.
“We also took the time to update some network switches. We were having some networking problems early in the school year. We invested in the network infrastructure and really stepped up our game there.”
In the coming year, the technology department plans to also look at updating the current desktops and laptops that have been used in the district for years, and see what can be done to continue efficient usage of these devices.
“We plan to look at upgrading and improving these deceives as much as possible by taking what we have and sprucing it up,” Ahlers noted.
In other business, thank you messages were extended to personnel within the district for the time and hard work that went into snow removal in order for the prom to be held as scheduled, among other congratulations which can be viewed online at the school’s website.
The next board meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Monday, May 13, in the Instructional Planning center at Huron Arena. The public is encouraged to attend.