Students will start the new school year on Tuesday, August 8, 2023. The last day of school will be Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
The calendars reflect a shift to allow the fall academic semester to end prior to Winter Break. This adjustment will be academically beneficial to students, and the feedback received regarding this shift was extremely positive, with 74% of respondents in favor, as detailed below. Midterms, finals and state testing will be completed before students leave for winter break, rather than in January when they return to school after an extended break.
GCS is releasing two years of calendars for the first time this year. Moving forward, the district’s Calendar Committee will provide a recommendation for an annual calendar two years in advance so families will always have two years of school calendars to use for planning purposes. The 2025-26 student calendar will be determined in Fall 2023.
Feedback Received:
Before approving the calendars, GCS requested feedback from parents and guardians and received more than 1,200 emails. The vast majority - 67 percent of respondents - showed support for the proposed calendars, and another 7 percent, while expressing support, also suggested the shift to an earlier start should be implemented a year later. The district also received feedback from students and staff throughout this process. GCS appreciates everyone who took the time to provide valuable feedback.
Implementing these changes now allows students to experience the most academic benefit sooner than if delayed until 2024. Additionally, to delay a year would result in the loss of two weeks during the summer of 2024. By releasing the 2023-24 and 2024-25 calendars now, the first summer will only be adjusted by one week rather than two weeks.
2023-2024 Important Dates:
For the 2023-24 school year, the last day of school before Winter Break will be Tuesday, December 19, and the first day back will be Thursday, January 4. Spring Break is slated for March 18-22, 2024. The day before Winter Break (December 19) and the last two days of school (May 21-22) will be half-days for students, remaining consistent with previous student calendars.
Other 2023-24 holidays include Labor Day (September 4), Thanksgiving Break (November 22-24), Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (January 15) and Presidents’ Day (February 19). In addition, students and teachers are out of school on March 29 and April 19, and the four professional development/teacher workdays are October 12-13, January 3 and March 8.
Important Reminders:
Up until this time, schools have had to determine whether to test prior to Winter Break. For those testing early, students lost additional days of instruction prior to testing, and students returned to a class they had already taken final exams for. For those testing after winter break, students took final exams after returning from an extended break when the content was not as fresh for them.
In accordance with state law, the calendar includes 180 scheduled instructional days and ten professional development/teacher workdays. Teachers will still work 190 days and have the same number of days off through the 2023-24 and 2024-25 calendars.
Because the first day of school for students is before the third Monday in August, South Carolina legislation requires that GCS operate on a “year-round modified school calendar.” Students are not attending school for 12 months of the year, and they will still have a summer. The calendar is structured in the same way as previous calendars.
The Superintendent determines the school calendar after receiving recommendations from the Calendar Committee, which receives input from parent groups and school faculties. The recommendations are also based on State requirements and factors such as required testing dates set by the State Department of Education. The Calendar Committee is composed of parents, teachers, principals and staff.
