NEW ULM — The District 88 School Board passed the school calendar for next year, and had the first reading of several policies at its meeting Tuesday.

The school board met on Tuesday instead of Thursday to avoid conflicts with board members’ schedules.

The 2020-21 school year will begin before Labor Day, with students in grades 1, 5 and 9 starting on Aug. 31. Classes for the rest of the student body, except for kindergarten, will start on Sept. 1, and Kindergarten classes will start on Sept. 2.

Winter break will start on Dec. 23 and end on Monday, Jan. 4.

High School graduation will be on May 21, and the last day of school will be May 27.

Policy changes

The board had the first reading for a number of school policy changes.

Among them are a change to the student parking policy that says students could lose parking privileges for up to a year for reckless or unsafe driving.

A new policy would allow two students to serve as student representatives on the school board. The student representatives would not be voting members of the board, and would attend regular meetings of the board to offer input. They would serve as a members of the NUHS Student Council and report back.

The student representatives would include one junior and one senior, with the junior member continuing on in the senior year.

Another new policy would set up a district succession plan, in which the school board would appoint an acting superintendent at the beginning of each school year in case the superintendent would be absent for a short term during the school year.

These policies will be heard again at the School Board’s March meeting.