Stephens Co. School Calendar Approved

The 2015-2016 school year in Stephens County will start for students on August 14.

Tuesday, the Board of Education approved next year’s school calendar by a vote of 6 to 1.

Jim Bellamy was the lone school board member to vote against the calendar.

He said that while he supports the calendar approved, he would have liked to have seen the start of school later in August to try and save money in operational costs.

“I just felt like there was some tweaking to save some days before the Christmas holiday, start a week later,” said Bellamy.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said that to still end the first semester before the Christmas holiday and push the start of school back a week would have required taking days from Fall Break in October and the week-long Thanksgiving holiday in November.

Dorsey said that pushing the start back any farther would have required pushing the end of the first semester back until after the Christmas holiday.

He said doing that would have drawbacks at the high school level.

According to Dorsey, the rationale is that the school system does have students that participate in joint enrollment and dual enrollment with colleges.

“The law has expanded those opportunities down to sophomores,” said Dorsey, who said students would have a harder time taking advantage of those opportunities if the semester went past Christmas.

The total calendar for the 2015-2016 school year is 166 days and the last student day of the 2015-2016 school year will come on May 18, 2016.

A copy of the calendar is available online at the Stephens County School System’s website, www.stephenscountyschools.com.