The Coweta County Board of Education is preparing to adopt new academic-year calendars for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years.

Three proposed school calendars have been placed online for public review and comment:
 
Option 1 – Closely follows the calendar used by the school system for the past several years.  A full week Thanksgiving Break and a full-week Winter Break (February) are scheduled. School starts Monday, August 5.

Option 2 – Differs by shortening the Thanksgiving Break to three days.  School starts Wednesday, August 7.

Option 3 – Differs by shortening the Winter Break (in February) to three days.  School starts Wednesday, August 7.
 
The school system has opened an online survey for school calendar options, which will remain open for public comment from November 14 through December 5. This survey allows participants to express their thoughts about school calendars, and also asks specific questions about the school system's traditional holiday schedule and the length of school breaks.
 
Take the survey
 
The school system intends to use the results of this survey to adopt school calendars for the next two years, in order to provide families with the ability to schedule vacation plans as early as possible.
The Georgia General Assembly is considering setting guidelines for school academic calendars during the 2019 Georgia General Assembly session in the Spring.  If the state legislature takes action that would affect school calendars in the spring, after Coweta’s adoption of new calendars, the school system would need to adjust adopted school calendars at that time.

All proposed calendars maintain 180 days of student instruction, divided into two 90-day semesters, or 89/91 days or 88/92 days. The first semester concludes before the start of holidays in December to allow for high school course completion and final exams prior to the Christmas and New Year's break.

In addition to the above, the calendars also include:

·         A Labor Day holiday

·         A 1-day October holiday in 2019/20, and a 1-day November holiday in 2020/21 coinciding with that year’s Presidential Election

·         Thanksgiving break

·         Two weeks for the Christmas and New Year’s break

·         Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday

·         A mid-Winter break in February

·         A full-week Spring break in April

·         School-year end before Memorial Day

Two Teacher Work Days have also been moved to March, to serve as possible inclement weather days in case of school closures that require student make-ups.  They would be used as teacher workdays/student holidays otherwise.  These would replace the inclement weather make-up days previously scheduled during the February break.

To adopt a significantly different calendar format would require a change to the length of the school holiday schedule outlined above.