Students in Aiken County will have a new school calendar beginning with the 2023-2024 school year.
Members of the Board of Education voted Jan. 25 to approve a recommendation from Superintendent King Laurence to institute a modified calendar. Other districts in South Carolina have adopted such a calendar, including Edgefield and McCormick counties.
The board had delayed voting on the calendar at the Jan. 11 deciding instead to send a paper survey home to parents and schedule two town hall meetings. One was held Wednesday, Jan. 19 at North Augusta High School; the second was at Aiken High School on Thursday, Jan 20.
Laurence’s plan called for the change to begin with the 2022-2023 school year, but the board voted to delay implementation for one year.
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Board chairman John Bradley said he wanted to see a comprehensive plan dealing with a number of issues that have been raised by parents who attended the town hall meetings and responded to a survey.
“I want to know specifically what kind of remedial program we’re going to have,” he said, “Who we going to serve, how we going to get them there, is it going cost them anything, what are we going to teach them, who’s going to teach them and what’s it going to cost us?”
Board member Jason Crane noted parents who attended the town halls had asked many questions, but only about 110 parents attended the two sessions.
“I think it would be good for us to have town halls at each high school,” he suggested. “I think it would be valuable to hold a few more town halls or something along those lines.”
Bradley also noted that only about 27% of the district’s parents responded to the paper survey that had been sent home.
The modified calendar would still have students in school 180 days and teachers working 190 days. The change would be how those days are distributed through the year.
The original modified calendar showed Aug. 1 as the first day of school. The Thanksgiving and winter breaks remained the same.
The difference was an additional break in the fall and extending an existing break. The calendar listed a fall break Oct. 3-14. It extended the spring break, starting on March 27 to April 7, 2023.
Bradley said, if they do decide to implement the modified calendar in the 2023-2024 school year those dates would have to be adjusted.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
