Students may be in for a surprise next year when they get a look the school year schedule for 2012-13.

Most notably is that first off, school will start a week later than normal, and secondly, winter break will be three and a half days shorter. The changes also eliminate the two half days and save the district approximately $82,000 in expenses. Such expenses include bus transportation, utilities and diesel fuel.

The main expenses will be saved during the month of August. Starting school in the third week of August instead of the second will save a large amount of money due to utilities in the school because they will not have the run air conditioners and other systems as long as normal.

The new calendar still takes into account the contracts of teachers and makes sure that all workdays and professional in-service days are still present and accounted for.
Other changes include the removal of the of the day off in the second week of April, and the adjustment of the exact days a couple other breaks occur on.

The final point of interest is that Kansas law requires public schools to have at least 1,116 hours of student contact time per school year. The 2012-13 calendar exceeds that number by three days for elementary students and almost five days for secondary students. This, however, does not take into account the four snow days that can be used if needed.