The Oglethorpe County School System will push back the start of the 2026-27 school year by one week to Friday, Aug. 7, according to the recently approved academic calendar.
School began on Friday, Aug. 1 this year.
The later start date prompted adjustments in the district’s October and February breaks, eliminating full week-long breaks in order to accommodate the change.
“Parents and teachers don’t like starting in July,” Oglethorpe County Superintendent Beverley Levine said. “The majority of the people wanted us to return to a later start, which meant fewer breaks in between.”
Levine said week-long breaks can be difficult for working parents, who often have to find childcare. For that reason, the Oglethorpe County Board of Education creates two calendar options and allows the parents to provide input before making a final decision.
This year, one calendar mirrored the 2025-2026 calendar and one included the delayed start date.
Parents preferred the more traditional model with fewer extended breaks.
While the calendar structure will change, the number of school days (178), teacher work days and district-wide professional learning days will remain the same.
One change will involve winter break.
This school year, the students are off Feb. 16-20, but in 2027, the students will be out of school for two days in February (Feb. 18-19). Teachers will have to work all five days that week, with a system-wide in-service day and a teacher in-service day scheduled for those days.
“We tried to give our teachers a little bit of a cushion with some extra days (this year),” Levine said. “That way if they want to travel, but more importantly if they need to make appointments for themselves, they’re not having to take sick days and be out of the classroom.”
A similar adjustment was made to the October break in the 2026-2027 calendar, shifting from two teacher in-service days and three holiday days to one teacher in-service day and two holiday days.
The two district-wide professional learning days are designed to give teachers time to collaborate across grade levels and schools to share instructional strategies and ensure curriculum alignment.
For the February professional learning day, the county will host an event called “Voyage to Learning,” where 80 different mini-conference sessions will be available for teachers to attend, each lasting 50 minutes and covering a wide range of topics.
“A big focus this year is AI,” Levine said. “So, we have a number of AI sessions for them to attend and just (learn) how to use AI effectively at different levels.”
The BOE has created two calendar options for the 2027-2028 school year, which is expected to be approved at the February BOE meeting.
Levine said the changes are not expected to significantly impact families or staff, but rather help advance long-term planning.
“The calendar is the calendar,” Levine said. “Everybody adjusts to it and makes plans accordingly. They just want to see it come out and then they make plans. It's not a huge adjustment for them.”