STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A school district in north Mississippi is considering a schedule with a shorter summer break and longer breaks in the fall and spring.
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District Superintendent Eddie Peasant discussed the proposal for the 2022-23 year during a school board meeting Tuesday, and the board could vote on it in November, the Commercial Dispatch reported.
Students would have six weeks off in the summer and two weeks off in the fall, winter and spring. Under the current plan, summer break is nine weeks, fall break is three days, winter break is two weeks and spring break is one week.
The school calendar would still have 180 days for students and 187 for teachers.
“Essentially, we’re working out a good compromise and taking feedback and working it all into a proposed calendar,” Peasant said. “I think that it will be great for our students and everyone else involved.”
The modified calendar would offer optional intersession courses for students to participate in acceleration, to help master some standards or extend their knowledge through a summer camp-type experience, said Nicole Thomas, communications director for the school district.
“Teachers who decide to work during those intersessions would be working with small groups of students, and they would be paid in addition to their 187 teacher day salary,” Thomas said.