Orange Beach school board combines Mardi Gras and spring break, adds Easter break for ’24 calendar

By Kara Mautz
Reporter
kara@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 2/17/23

The Orange Beach school board held their second meeting of the year on Thursday, Feb. 9.

Members of the school board unanimously voted to pass several action items, which are topics that were …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Subscribe to continue reading. Already a subscriber? Sign in

Get the gift of local news. All subscriptions 50% off for a limited time!

You can cancel anytime.
 

Please log in to continue

Log in

Orange Beach school board combines Mardi Gras and spring break, adds Easter break for ’24 calendar

Posted

The Orange Beach school board held their second meeting of the year on Thursday, Feb. 9.

Members of the school board unanimously voted to pass several action items, which are topics that were introduced and proposed at a previous meeting, including the contract for the varsity girls basketball coach, the school calendar and upgrades coming to the performing arts center.

One of the biggest changes for the school system will be the academic calendar for 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, which has been voted on and approved by the board.

2023-2024:

  • Students will have the whole week off for Thanksgiving (Nov. 20-24)
  • Winter break will begin December 20

2024-2025:

  • Spring semester will begin January 6
  • No Mardi Gras break, will be combined into an earlier spring break March 3-7
  • Easter Break April 18-21 (replace Mardi Gras Break)

Joe Blevins, director of personnel, operations and student services, took the stage to discuss the changes in the 2024-25 school calendar.

“Easter is later this year, and will fall in April which pushes Mardi Gras later as well,” Blevins said. “If we did a Mardi Gras break and then did a spring break a few weeks later, we would have a lot of days off prior to testing where we really need the kids in school.”

Blevins said that the group designing the calendar came to the consensus to combine Mardi Gras break with spring break, moving it into early March.

“The tradeoff we get was in April, we are going to take Good Friday and the Monday off after Easter,” Blevins said. “What this does is give us a little of a break off testing and gives us the days prior to testing to get our students geared up for it.”

Members also discussed a previously approved drug testing policy, in greater detail.

The policy states that “no student may be returned to regular activities after any rehabilitation or testing positive unless certified as safe and not using drugs by having a negative result on a return-to-participation screen.”

The new policy will require that any student who returns to participation after violating the policy of testing policy will be subject to aftercare and random testing as set out in a written probation agreement. The student will then be required to execute the probation.

The new policy also outlines that parents may choose to opt their child into the program and have their child be tested each time a sample is collected, at their own cost that will be paid to the Orange Beach City Schools Board of Education.

Additionally, students who test positive for drug usage will also have their school parking pass revoked.

*After voting on the action items, Orange Beach School Board members conducted a last-minute vote to move their Executive Session before the discussion items, creating a 30-minute delay to the public meeting.