While the 2025-26 school year is still marching on, the Fort Dodge Community School District Board heard about the 2026-27 calendar at its Monday meeting.

Curriculum director Teri Boezinger presented the calendar committee’s plan to the group, which was unanimously approved.

“It has taken us two sessions to get up and running,” she said. “One of the bigger changes was front-loading the year with more professional learning events for teachers since we wanted to stay away from the end of the year.”

She added that the half-day Fridays schedule, with not all months included, will continue with professional development as part of the schedule.

“We are aligning spring break with the state regent schools (University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa) and Iowa Central,” Boezinger said. “There will also be a full two weeks as a Christmas break, and we have it planned to be out by June 1.”

Digging deeper into scheduling discussions, Boezinger presented the board with a look at what the New Solutions K12 company offers.

“This goes toward a more set daily regimen for all three levels,” she said. “We’re going through a scheduling boot camp of sorts with focus on making sure all classrooms have English as a Second Language, mathematics and science as musts. We’ll also have to have interventions taught in specific locations at a specific time and a way to keep classroom scheduling in line.”

“We’re working to not have as many daily issues next year,” she added.

The board approved the program at a cost of $25,000.

In other action, the board:

n Approved the financial services agreement with Piper Sandler financial services company in accordance with the recent bond passage. Their compensation is set at just over $200,000 for financial advising on bond items, according to financial director Brandon Hansel.

n Approved Piper Sandler as its dissemination agent for the bond processes. “It’s a separate legal role with them which includes helping with annual filings,” Hansel said.

n Approved the bond counsel agreement with Ahlers and Cooney PC of Des Moines. “They’ll be our lawyers for things related to the bond, as they handle the majority of this type of work around the state,” Hansel said. Compensation for the company is set at $45,000.

n Approved authorizing the issuance of $42.04 million in general obligation school bonds and levying a tax for the payment. Hansel indicated it is the pre-levy added to the 2026-27 budget.

The next meeting of the Fort Dodge Community School District Board is 6 p.m. Feb. 23.