(KWNO)-The Winona Area Public Schools School Board will Tuesday on a proposal to end elementary school early this year to accommodate the ongoing heating and cooling project at Jefferson and W-K Elementary Schools. Goodview Elementary School is not part of the project but would also end one week early. WAPS superintendent Brad Berzinski says the district saw this coming when the project started at the end of the 2022-23 school year.
“Phase one of the project which just wrapped up was only going to be able to handle about 30% of the total work, they had about a nine-week work window this past summer and that was adequate for the work that had to be done in phase one however we knew from the start that phase two would require about a 12-week work window and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish by making this calendar adjustment,” said Berzinski.
If the proposal is approved by the school board, elementary school would end on May 30. Berzinski says students will still get 166 days of learning, one more than the state mandate.
The Key Kids after school program will also go ahead for that final week, likely at Goodview Elementary and the district also plans to offer free community meals to all families. Key Kids will probably shift to its all-day summer model one week early. Berzinski says it’s possible the start of the 2024-25 school year will also be delayed by one week to ensure the geothermal project is completed. The total cost of the project will be about $26 million, according to Berzinski.
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