Proposed SY24 Calendar

Here are some details about our draft academic calendar for next year. The proposal was first included in the Courier last week, and it will be up for a vote by the Governing Board on Thursday, December 15 at 6:30pm:

• First day of school – Tuesday, August 1 – aligns with Atlanta Public Schools
  • Preceded by six days of planning, collaboration, preparation and professional development for faculty and staff: July 24 through 31 and;
  • Three full days of orientation for all new school employees: July 18 through 20
• One day of planning, collaboration, preparation and professional development for faculty and staff on September 5; employees will report to work while students will complete assignments independently at home
• Fall break – October 9 through 13 – aligns with Atlanta Public Schools
  • Faculty and staff will report to work for a day of planning, collaboration, preparation and professional development on October 13
• Thanksgiving break – November 20 through 24 – aligns with Atlanta Public Schools
• Winter break – December 18 through January 3 – aligns with Atlanta Public Schools
  • Faculty and staff will report to work for a day of planning, collaboration, preparation and professional development on January 2
• Mid-winter break – February 19 through 23 – aligns with Atlanta Public Schools
  • Faculty and staff will report to work for a day of planning, collaboration, preparation and professional development on February 23
• One day of planning, collaboration, preparation and professional development for faculty and staff on March 15; employees will report to work while students will complete assignments independently at home
• Spring break – April 1 through 5 – aligns with Atlanta Public Schools
• Last day of school – May 24 – aligns with Atlanta Public Schools
  • Faculty and staff will report to work for two days of planning, collaboration, preparation and professional development on May 28 & 29

A Note on Faculty/Staff Work Days
Providing teachers and support staff with ample time to plan and collaborate is a consistent goal at Neighborhood Charter. We charge our faculty with the enormous responsibility of designing lesson plans that are specifically tailored to their students’ needs. We require them to differentiate their teaching to give each child in their class individualized attention. This is one of the primary reasons our school is among the top tier in the state when it comes to academic achievement.

The time teachers need to satisfy this requirement is equal to and sometimes greater than the amount of time they spend in the classroom. If we do not give them the time they need to plan, hone and perfect their lesson plans and assess student data, we cannot expect the same level of intellectual growth from our students.

Atlanta Public Schools has allotted faculty/staff work days – days when students do not report to school, but teachers do – dating at least back to the 1980’s. In past years, there have been as many as one per quarter over the course of the school year. More recently, APS has scheduled work days in November (often on election day), and at some point during the month of March.

Historically, we have tried to schedule most of these work days at the beginning or end of the summer and during fall and mid-winter breaks. In the calendar proposal for SY24, we have added one faculty/staff workday per semester – in September and March – and included a plan to craft assignments and tasks for students to complete at home (there will be no virtual classes) while teachers and those that support them can study student data, craft differentiation plans, participate in professional development, write reports, and/or collaborate with their grade level or subject area counterparts.

For reference, the APS calendar for this current school year (SY23) has workdays in November and March, and our own ANCS calendar for this current school year (SY23) has a workday in March as well.

For a little more background and an outside perspective on the importance of teacher planning time, you can reference the following articles:

• William & Mary School of Education: The Importance of Lesson Planning for Student Success
• Edutopia: Less is More – The Value of a Teacher’s TIme

You can continue to send your feedback/input on the proposed calendar to Chuck at cmeadows@atlncs.org. Your perspectives will be shared with the K-8 leadership team and the Governing Board.