Charles County, MD – At its March 8 meeting, the Board of Education restored a full week of spring break for students and teachers for the 2016-17 school year. Spring break in 2017 is April 10-17, 2017. This does not change the spring break scheduled later this month for March 24-28, 2016.
In making this change, the Board also voted against using spring break days next year for inclement weather make-up time. Six inclement weather days are built in to the 2016-17 school calendar. Any additional make-up dates will be added to the end of the school year. A partial calendar for next school year is posted on the Charles County Public Schools website at http://www.ccboe.com/aboutus/calendar/ataglance.php. Two-hour early dismissal dates will be added when they are finalized.
The Board approves school calendars two years in advance and is in the process of considering a calendar proposal for the 2017-18 school year. To gather feedback on calendar dates and the proposal, the Board annually provides the community with a calendar survey. A seven-question survey based on a 2017-18 proposal was posted on the Charles County Public Schools website, www.ccboe.com, from Feb. 2 through March 3 and emailed to all parents and staff. The 2017-18 proposal included a condensed spring break similar to the schedule occuring later this month. Nearly 3,400 people responded to the survey and the top suggestion was to include one full week for spring break.
The calendar for the coming school year was approved by the Board in 2015; however a holiday change was proposed by CCPS staff, requiring the Board to revisit the 2016-17 school calendar. The proposed change included providing students and teachers an additional holiday date in January to align with federal and state holiday schedules. The Board will vote on the 2017-18 school calendar at its April 19 meeting and have amended the proposal to include a full week off for students and teachers for spring break.