Cheltenham SD narrows 2025-26 calendar choices to two drafts; district seeks family and staff input

Dr. Savage presented two revised academic calendar options for 2025–26 developed by an academic calendar committee that included families and staff.

"Both calendars start on August 25 and end on June 12," Dr. Savage said, and the committee coded the two leading drafts as C and D after community feedback. The primary differences are placement of professional development days, the number of early‑dismissal days and the length of winter break.

Draft C places three full professional development days at the start of the year and includes a professional development day on the Monday before Rosh Hashanah; it produces fewer early-dismissal days (nine) and a week‑and‑a‑half winter break. Draft D moves one PD day earlier in August so there are four start‑of‑year PD days, yields 11 early‑dismissal days and provides a full two‑week winter break.

Dr. Savage said the district has already sent a family survey and had received about 100 responses; the plan is to survey household by household, send separate surveys to union members and support staff, target approximately a 20% household response (about 500 families), and present final results to the board at the December legislative meeting.

Parents in the meeting expressed concerns about caregiver burden and childcare costs for half‑days; Dr. Savage said the survey includes questions about how schedule changes would affect families and that results will be published at the board meeting.

Committee members weighed tradeoffs: one member favored draft C for learning continuity in September and fewer extended breaks in December; another cautioned that a long winter break poses childcare and curricular planning challenges. The committee also discussed counting instructional hours under recent PDE guidance and the ongoing teacher contract negotiations as reasons to limit the calendar to a one‑year planning cycle this year.

Next steps: the district will continue family and staff outreach, run focus groups if needed to reach underrepresented schools, finalize a draft for the December board meeting and plan for a February public inspection period tied to the comprehensive plan timeline.