The Oglethorpe County Board of Education will look to approve a 2025-26 schedule that includes a full week off for students in October and Thanksgiving break, without distance learning days.
At a work session on Tuesday, it also proposed a week-long break for students in February that includes one distance learning day.
A motion to approve the 2025-26 schedule will be held at the next regular board meeting on Tuesday, June 11.
“(The break in February) was the wild card,” board chair Becky Soto said. “Studies are showing (more frequent breaks) are better for learning and they’re better for reducing teacher burnout.”
Soto said she hopes that by making these changes known sooner rather than later, families will be able to take full advantage of additional time off during the school year.
“Giving it to them months in advance, they have lots of time to look at it, lots of time to plan for it,” she said.
To compensate for extra breaks, school would be slated to begin Aug. 1, 2025. School began with a staggered start on Aug. 7 last year with Aug. 9 as the first full day for all students.
A plan to amend the 2024-25 schedule also is in place.
To facilitate a clean transition into Oglethorpe County’s new 135,560-square foot elementary school next January, the board is set to approve a schedule change that adds two extra school days before December break and subsequently removes two school days directly after that break is over.
The new elementary school would open on Jan. 10, as opposed to the originally scheduled date of Jan. 8.
The two extra days off in January will serve as teacher work days, Soto said, so faculty can set up new classrooms.
The board agreed to finalize its 2025 fiscal year budget of $31.7 million for approval.
The proposed budget includes nearly $21 million dedicated to instruction costs.
“We have had two hearings on the budget,” Superintendent Beverley Levine said. “It has been presented to the board. I think we’re at the point now to have it approved at the next board meeting.”
An updated board policy in agreement with Georgia House Bill 1010 was also given a green light for approval. Passed in April, the bill doubles the amount of paid parental leave afforded to parents working in public schools. All new parents will be eligible for six weeks of parental leave, effective July 1.