Now that the Albert Lea School Board has approved calendars for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years, it is time for the community to reunify and start planning for the future.

The school board and the community had been discussing many calendars since 2013. Everything from a balanced calendar to a modified calendar and a traditional calendar have been considered with varying start and finish times.

We are positive that no matter what calendar would have been approved, the district’s teachers would have worked their hardest to teach the students the best they could.

After months of community meetings, the board on Monday approved traditional calendars for both school years, with the first year starting after Labor Day and the second year starting before.

During the meeting, school board member Julie Johnson commented that approving the post-Labor Day calendar would be like extending an olive branch to the community.

We hope the community will accept that branch and come together again.

We can all agree on one thing: The education of our children can open the door to their future. We hope administrators, educators, parents and the community can set their differences aside and join under that principle moving forward.