Category Archives: School Calendar

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I was informed that The Calendar Committee “was comprised of a variety of stakeholder groups, including students, parents, community/business partners, school-level staff, and district level advisers.” The Calendar Committee discussed the number of days per year, number of days per semester, inclement weather/emergency days, testing windows, spring breaks, holidays, school breaks, and other metro area school districts’ calendars.
Tomorrow, the board will discuss and approve the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school calendars.  The Calendar Committee released the proposed 2016-17 calendar this evening and answered some questions posed by readers of this blog.
2017-2018  Calendar
2016-2017  Calendar
2015-2016  Calendar
  2016-2017  Calendar
  2017-2018  Calendar
02/01/2016 – DeKalb Schools 2016-2017 Calendar Update
Question:  How did we come to this start date?
Calendar Committee:  There were 8,050 responses to the online survey.  48% was community and stakeholders.  A majority of the community prefers a later start date.
Question:  How did we address religious holidays conflicting with the testing schedule?
Calendar Committee:  Except for PSAT, there will be no testing in September or October.
Question:  Why don’t the students have school on Nov 8, election day?
Calendar Committee:  The community feedback was that parents want their children to be off from school on election day. 
Please comment here with any thoughts or questions.
click to enlarge

The Calendar Committee is charged with developing calendar options for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years.  Both calendars will be finalized and approved at the upcoming Feb 1 board meeting.  Please comment here with any thoughts or suggestions.
2016-2017 DeKalb Schools Calendar
 2015 – 2016 School Calendar
 2015 – 2016 Graduation Schedule


2016-2017 Calendar
The recommendation for the 2016-2017 school year is a calendar very similar to the current school year’s calendar.

• First Day of School – August 8, 2016
• End of First Semester – December 20, 2016
• Beginning of Second Semester for Students – January 4, 2017
• Spring Break – April 3-7, 2017
• Last Day of School for Students – May 25, 2017

2016-2017 and 2017-2018 calendars include the following attributes:

1. 180 days of instruction for students
2. 190 teacher days including one evening workday comprised of parent-teacher conferences (2 per semester)
3. 5 teacher workdays before the first day of school
4. Holidays for all – Labor Day, Martin L. King, Jr. Day, and President’s Day
5. Thanksgiving break – Fourth Week of November
6. Spring Break – coincides with most metro area districts
7. Last day of school for students – Fourth Week of May

2017-2018 Calendar
The committee is considering different options for the 2017-2018 school year. The major differences are pre-planning days for teachers and the first day of school for students.  One calendar option begins the school year with pre-planning for teachers on Monday, July 24, 2017, and the first day of school for students on Monday, July 31, 2017.  The other calendar option begins the school year with pre-planning for the teachers on Monday, July 31, 2017, and the first day of school for students on August 7, 2017.
NOTE:  The earlier start date provides the flexibility to include a fall break five consecutive weekdays/one week).  Although there are several possibilities for the fall mini break, the committee will consider the testing schedules.
The calendar is being released later than usual this year.  Upon inquiring on Jan 5 about the status of the calendar, I was informed the calendar committee was working on getting community input.  Last week I asked about the status of getting community input for the upcoming school calendar. Subsequent to that inquiry, the calendar committee published this online survey.   Their robust attempt to gather community input yielded a survey containing only this one question:
Would you like to start the 2017-2018 school year one week earlier to incorporate a fall break (five consecutive weekdays/one week)?