New Fayette school calendar features longer winter break, no school on Election Day

The 2020-2021 school year calendar was unanimously approved by the Fayette County Board of Education on June 17. That’s the term beginning in August 2020.

The calendar features several changes from previous school calendars:

• Students and teachers will get a week-long winter break in February. In previous calendars it was two days.

• Students will not report to school on election day, Nov. 3, since some schools serve as polling sites.

• When teachers have professional learning days, students will have personalized learning days. On these days, students will receive assignments that they will complete at home on their assigned Chromebooks.

The board made its decision following the results of a survey that was given to parents and staff on two calendar options.

The main difference between the two options was the length of the February winter break — one week versus two days. Over 55 percent of parents and over 54 percent of staff preferred the weeklong break, aaccording to the online survey.

Parents and staff were also asked about not having students report to school on election day, and about their opinion of having student personalized learning days when teachers are participating in professional learning.

Over 81 percent of parents and over 83 percent of staff favored using election day as a professional learning and personalized learning day, and over 80 percent of parents and over 77 percent of staff liked the idea of students having personalized learning days when teachers are taking part in professional learning.

A total of 2,932 parents and 1,038 staff responded to the survey.