Late start causes Fayette to change school calendar

Starting fall classes two weeks later than originally scheduled is requiring the Fayette County school system to trade some vacation days for instruction days. The Board of Education voted 5-0 at its Aug. 10 work session to approve a revised academic calendar for 2020-21.

As presented by Assistant Superintendent Julie Turner, the new schedule cancels a two-day October break and shortens the Thanksgiving holiday week by two days. Doing so still enables the fall semester and exams to end before the year-end break. The week-long breaks in February and April will remain, but a long weekend in March has been cut. The school year will end on May 28 as planned.

The adjustment will give students 85 instruction days in the fall and 91 in the spring, just under the usual 180-day total. Turner said a committee of teachers, administrators and parents endorsed the plan. School board members said they expect complaints from parents about the holidays, but said they had no better solution for making up the instructional time.