July 16, 2026 - School Board Meeting of Forest Lake Area Schools
Employee Recognition
2027-2028 Academic Calendar First Reading
Full Document Analysis
Votes (3)
Approval of Consent Agenda Items 5.1 and 5.3
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [0:03:38] · Seconded by Unknown [0:03:40]
Standard approval of uncontested items from the consent agenda.
Approval of Consent Agenda Item 5.2: Recognition of Joy Mooch's Service
Dissent: None
Moved by Unknown [0:04:05] · Seconded by Unknown [0:04:06]
Member Tyson delivered a heartfelt public thank you to Joy Mooch for her 20 years of dedicated service as administrative assistant to the superintendent, highlighting her professionalism, grace, and ability to manage extreme challenges, including the COVID-19 period. The Chair also acknowledged Joy Mooch's contributions.
First Reading: 2027-2028 Academic Calendar
Dissent: None
Moved by null · Seconded by null
Superintendent Jacobson presented the draft calendar, detailing its development by a committee considering various factors. The primary discussion revolved around the proposed August 30th start date (before Labor Day) to allow for an earlier June 1st end date, necessary due to a late Labor Day in 2027. Board members discussed the implications for families (State Fair, vacations) versus benefits for students (AP test preparation, earlier summer release). Past survey results showing a 50/50 split on early starts were mentioned, and a future survey was suggested to gather feedback after families experience the new schedule. The desire for calendar consistency was also voiced.
Notable Quotes (9)
Yes. I would like to publicly thank Joy Mooch for her 20 years of service to our district.
Joy was here through the stressful COVID times where nothing was linear and every day was a different set of challenges and mandates.
Joy went above and beyond what was expected in her job description. For this, I publicly want to thank her for her outstanding role she performed as administrative assistant to the superintendent, Steve Massie.
In order to prevent us from going well into June, this calendar... has a starting school on August 30th... and the end of the school year would be on Friday, I'm sorry, Thursday, June 1st.
I know that I've in the past I've been really very insistent on starting after Labor Day... but I do understand this and I think a good compromise was to give that Friday off...
The other piece that I would offer is this is also creates an advantage for our high school students who take college level courses in our high school. So, it gives them one more week of preparation on AP tests...
I mean, I always like when we get out earlier. I used to work in the buildings. It gets hot, kids are done, behaviors can ramp up.
I maybe propose a suggestion that uh after families experience it that the start since we have to approve these about a year early, maybe we repeat that survey sometime next spring, get an idea about how families feel about it...
Uh once this all gets vetted out then perhaps we could make it a standard so that when the days fall where they are in this situation that they can expect for that to be the case so consistency.
Ordinances & Resolutions (3)
Proposed academic calendar for the school district presented for a first reading.
Previous academic calendar referenced during the discussion.
Future academic calendar referenced during the discussion.