The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County is scheduled to give formal approval to the 2016-2017 School Year Calendar and tentative approval to a calendar for the 2017-2018 school year at its next meeting, set for November 18, 2015.
The draft 2016-2017 calendar approved by the school system’s Calendar Committee – a group that consists of AACPS employees, students, and representatives of employee bargaining units and parent groups – would have classes begin for students on August 23, 2016 – one calendar day earlier than in the current school year – and end on June 13, 2017 – four calendar days earlier than in the current school year. A lack of inclement weather closings could result in schools dismissing on June 6, 2017 – 11 calendar days earlier than in the current school year.
The draft calendar builds in five days for inclement weather closings and stipulates that Easter Monday (April 17, 2017) would be used as a makeup day if needed. Any additional needed makeup days would be added to the end of the school year.
The draft calendar shortens the Thanksgiving and Easter/Spring breaks to three days each, something favored by a large majority of respondents to an online comment link earlier this year. It also places single days for parent-teacher conferences in each of the first three marking periods and reallocates exam days to accommodate the move to quarterly assessments.
Also at the meeting, the Board will consider approval of an amended contract for a new Monarch Academy contract school to be located in Annapolis. Pending availability of funds, the school would open in August 2017 and would help alleviate overcrowding at the elementary schools in the Annapolis cluster.
The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Parham Building, 2644 Riva Road, Annapolis. The Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. to vote to go into closed session, during which time it will discuss confidential matters as permitted by the Maryland Open Meetings Act including, but not limited to, legal advice, personnel, and negotiations. Closed session is not open to the public. The general session of the meeting, which is open to the public, will begin at 7:00 p.m.
A complete agenda for the meeting accompanies this news release. More information on agenda items will be posted on the AACPS website in the Board Docs section under the Board of Education tab.
The general session of Wednesday’s Board meeting will be broadcast live on AACPS-TV, which can be found on Channel 96 on Comcast and Broadstripe, and Channel 36 on Verizon. High definition broadcasts can be seen on Channel 996 on Comcast and Channel 496 on Broadstripe. Rebroadcasts are scheduled for 7:00 p.m. the day after the meeting and 2:00 p.m. on subsequent Sundays.
The meeting can also be viewed live on the Internet here.
Archived videos of Board meetings can be found online here.