Calendars

A calendar committee, which includes administrators, teachers, staff, students, and families, meets several times a year to develop a draft calendar. The committee takes into consideration state law, regional programs shared with other peninsula school divisions, and other factors affecting the calendar. The committee's recommendation is given to the division superintendent and senior staff, who present it to the School Board for final approval.

Beginning with the 2020-21 school year, the division elected to start the school year in order to maximize instructional opportunities to address possible COVID-19 learning slide, increase instructional alignment for students in AP, IB and special programs, and to increase instructional time alignment for SOL based courses with testing in March and May

As the division's calendar must meet the 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours requirements, make-up days will be determined at the discretion of the Superintendent using a combination of banked time, holidays and teacher workdays.

Learn more about emergency school closings.

York County uses multiple schools as voting precincts for elections, meaning hundreds of visitors are in and out of school throughout the day. As such, the division closes all schools on Election Day to ensure the safety of our students.

The calendar committee began recommending Veterans Day to be a school day to minimize the number of student holidays in November while simultaneously providing schools the opportunity to honor veterans through various activities and assemblies. These efforts have been well-received by our veterans and families.

Our neighboring school divisions have agreed to observe a consistent spring break each year to allow for the planning and organization of regional programs (e.g. New Horizons Regional Educational Centers). A consistent spring break also supports instruction by typically falling near or at the end of the third quarter. This consistent scheduling also supports many of our families and employees who work in one division but live in another community, while also allowing families to make plans well in advance of the calendar being officially approved by our school board.