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The Andalusia City Schools Board of Education approved the system’s 2023-24 school calendar during a meeting Monday.

Among the changes in next year’s calendar is changing teacher professional development days from eight half-days to four full days. During the current school year, students were dismissed at mid-day for the teacher professional development time. Next year the students will not attend school on those days, instead participate in virtual learning.

According to Superintendent Dr. Daniel Shakespeare, the half-day format led to differences in the release time between the high school and elementary school. While Andalusia Elementary let students out at approximately 11:30 a.m., the high school could not release students until 12:30 p.m.

The 23-24 calendar calls for teacher development days to be in the months of September, November, February and April.

The superintendent said that several calendar options were provided to teachers who voted for the version they preferred. The version approved by the board received about 57 percent of the teacher vote.

The board approved the 23-24 school calendar by unanimous vote.

In other action, the board approved the following personnel changes.

• A leave of absence for teacher Erin Maddox.
• Accepting the resignation of third grade teacher Loran Rigdon and high school English teacher Summer Lollar.
• Retirements were approved for Diane Shavers and Ann Pugh, both third grade teachers at AES. Both are longtime educators with the school system. Shavers has been teaching for about 36 years while Pugh has been with the system for about 38 years.
• The board also approved to request bids for the purchase of a cafeteria cooler/freezer for Andalusia Elementary School.

The next meeting of the Andalusia BOE is scheduled for Monday, April 17, 6 p.m., in the Woodson Learning Center conference room.