GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay and Ashwaubenon schools may start the 2024-2025 academic year before Sept. 1 so it can cancel classes during the NFL Draft.
District officials say they are excited Green Bay was selected to host the 2025 NFL Draft.
According to Vicki Bayer of the Green Bay Area Public School District (GBAPS), “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and there’s going to be great events for our students and our staff to be a part of.”
But school officials also realize the event will bring hundreds of thousands of extra people to the area, leading to safety concerns for staff and students, and overall congestion in the area.
“We have Valley View Elementary, which is literally a couple of blocks from Lambeau. Very concerned about our students being able to walk home safely, students being able to walk to school safely, and then to be able to get our buses actually down the street,” said Kurt Weyers, superintendent of the Ashwaubenon School District.
Those concerns are leading both districts to petition the state, asking to be allowed to start the 2024-2025 school year in late August.
State law requires schools to start after Sept. 1, but can ask the state for waivers.
“An estimated 300,000 people will be attending the event, creating traffic congestion and safety concerns for our students and staff. In collaboration with our neighboring district in Ashwaubenon, and with support from the District Calendar Committee, District administration would like to submit a waiver request to DPI to allow the Green Bay Area Public School District to begin the school year with students during the last week of August 2024. In turn, the District would be closed from Wednesday, April 24 – Friday, April 26, 2025,” states a memo for Monday night’s agenda.
The full resolution describes the draft as a “force of nature” outside the district’s control.
Among the reasons cited in the draft of the resolution:
WHEREAS, in cities in which the NFL draft has been held, substantial disruptions to various logistics have occurred, including short term housing and lodging, public transportation, road closures, increased traffic and restricted and limited parking; and
WHEREAS the NFL draft will result in local law enforcement reallocating human resources to the law enforcement needs of the NFL draft causing law enforcement resources not to be available to public school districts for the day-to-day safety and security operations of the district including but not limited to the support of school resource officers; and
WHEREAS, in cities that hold large spectator events, such events can attract criminal activity and increase crimes against the vulnerable, including an increase in human trafficking and out-of-town traffickers bringing people into a city, excessive alcohol use and sale and use of illegal drugs
WHEREAS, should the Green Bay Area Public School District determine based on safety and security needs to cancel in-person learning during the dates of the NFL draft, doing so would unreasonably extend the instructional calendar into the later part of June when students historically have been released for summer recess and attendance rates are at the lowest;
WHEREAS, to avoid an unreasonably late ending of the school year, the Board of Education has determined that to optimize learning for students, that the 2024-2025 school year shall commence prior to September 1, 2024, in order to accommodate the additional days of no instruction due to the forces of nature of the 2025 NFL draft event outsider of the control of the Board of Education that could not be avoidable by exercise of due care.
Superintendent Weyers, who’s already received approval from his school board to move forward with the waiver process, believes the districts have a good argument.
“This event is not planned by us, it’s out of our control, but certainly is being housed in our community and that’s the basis of our appeal,” Weyers said.
Green Bay school officials are confident a waiver would be granted, as long as they file the proper paperwork with the state.
But if their petition is denied, school officials say they’ll still keep schools closed during the draft and then tack extra days on to the end of the year.
That’s an option they don’t want to have to deal with. “One of our concerns with that is, it would take us into the third week of June, which we want to avoid. Attendance always dips at the end of the school year and quite frankly, students and staff are pretty tired by June,” Bayer said.
The waiver petition needs to be filed by the end of the year. Both districts plan to file them soon, so they can get an answer and publish their 2024-2025 school calendars.
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