Williamsburg-James City County Schools’ winter break will be two days longer for the 2015-16 school year.
The WJCC School Board voted unanimously at its meeting Tuesday night to adopt a 2015-16 academic calendar for the school division that differed slightly from what was initially presented to the board in January.
The calendar approved by the Board on Tuesday night lays out a school year that convenes Sept. 8 and runs through June 17, 2016. The original draft of the calendar marked June 16 as the final day of classes.
With the extended school year, a teacher work day originally scheduled for June 17 was pushed back to June 20.
The adopted calendar also includes a 10-day winter break, compared to the original draft’s eight-day break. WJCC’s winter break for 2015-16 will run from Dec. 21 through Jan. 4.
Deputy Superintendent Olwen Herron said part of the input for each year’s academic calendar comes from regional scheduling of shared school initiatives, such as the New Horizons Regional Education Center and the Center for Autism.
Herron said regional superintendents reconvened after the initial draft of the calendar was presented to the school board and agreed to schedule a winter break for 2015-16 that covered two full weeks of classes.
To accommodate the 10-day break, the regional school divisions agreed to cancel the regional spring holiday March 28, transferring it to April 1 — the Friday before spring break. Thanksgiving break was also shortened by switching the day prior from a full day off to an early release day.
At both the January meeting and Tuesday night, board members said a 10-day winter break was preferable to a shorter holiday.
“I certainly did get some correspondence urging me to support the 10-day break,” board member Elise Emanuel (City of Williamsburg) said.
The late date for the end of school — nearly a week after the 2014-15 last day of classes — raised concerns from school board members at their meeting in January. Those concerns were not revisited at the meeting Tuesday night.
Virginia state law prohibits school divisions from beginning the school year before Labor Day, and requires the equivalent of 180 class days during the school year.
The complete WJCC calendar for 2015-16 is available here.
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