Cleveland County Schools releases new calendars, seeks parents help to pick the best one

Cleveland County Schools has released a public draft of the 2026-27 school year calendar options and is seeking input from parents and the community.

The three options are posted on the school system’s website with an chance to provide feedback.

There is also information on state calendar laws and a calendar comparison chart.

During last week’s Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Stephen Fisher outlined the three options and said it was important to move ahead with selecting the calendar for the following year since parents often make summer plans in advance.

When creating a calendar, the school system must follow state laws for the number of teacher work days and instructional hours. Teachers must have 215 work days, and students must have 1,025 instructional hours.

Fisher said the first option has an early start date for students of Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, and a last day of Wednesday, May 26, 2027. It has 178 student days and 16 teacher work days. He said it follows state calendar laws with the exception of the early start date.

The second option has a later start date of Aug. 24, and last date of June 4. Fisher said the semesters are unbalanced with the first semester a lot shorter than the second semester, which ends in December. There is also 178 students days and 16 teacher work days.

The third option also has a later start date of Aug. 24 and last day of June 4. The first semester ends in January which Fisher said presents challenges with exam schedules. There are 177 student days and 17 teacher work days. He said this option was used in 2018-19 but was not popular because students took exams after the Christmas break.

Each of the three options has the same number of holidays and annual leave days.

The board will vote on the calendar at the May meeting and will have a chance to consider community feedback.

Fisher said it is on the website and social media.

“We usually get a couple thousand responses to that,” he said.

There has been some controversary over the past several years that the scheduled calendars do not follow state law. The first day for students can be no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26. The last for students can be no later than the Friday closest to June 11. The CCS calendars typically begin before Aug. 26 and ends earlier than June 11.

Reach reporter Rebecca Sitzes at rsitzes@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Shelby Star: Check out these three new Cleveland County Schools calendar options