OKC School Board To Review New School Year Calendars

OKCPS Board of Education will review new school calendars and its changes for the next three school years. 

In May, district officials met with parents, representatives from the unions, principals, the Foundation for OKCPS and central office representatives to discuss possibilities for the school years.

The team used the feedback from district stakeholders to develop a new, hybrid school year from the "continuous learning" calendar model OKCPS has been using since 2011. 

"It became clear that our early start date hasn't been working for thousands of OKCPS families. This year, over 3,000 OKCPS students missed critical instruction because they started school late," according to an OKCPS news release.

The calendar will: 

• Start school mid-August & end before Memorial Day
• Provide a full week break in October, at Thanksgiving and in March
• Provide two week Winter break
• Provide a slightly longer break at summer for school staff and for students to recharge
• Allow more time to hire teachers, bus drivers and other critical staff
• Provide more time to order and receive instructional resources for the start of the school year
• Allow our Operations teams to complete building maintenance, renovations and deep cleaning
• Allow educators to continue their advocacy efforts by closing the district for Election Day in November 2020
• Ensure that all employees' pay cycles are not affected

The school board will vote on the new calendars on Monday, Sept. 10.

“If we can save a good amount of money and direct it into the classroom-- that’s a good idea,” said Ed Allen with the Oklahoma City American Federation of Teachers.

While Allen thinks the new calendars are a good move, he said the current “continuous learning calendar” model has generally been recognized as a recruitment tool.

“So we’re going to miss that a little bit,” Allen said. “But in surveying our teachers, 49 percent are OK with moving to the new calendar, 42 percent oppose it and 9 percent are just neutral on the idea.”

District officials did not release information about whether the new calendar would save money.

Click here to read more about the new school years.