Madison school board approves 2020-21 calendar
MADISON – The 2020-2021 school year calendar for Madison City Schools is now official.
The Board of Education adopted the calendar with no changes from the May 21 draft on Thursday.
Dorinda White, the attendance coordinator for the school district, said the calendar is very similar to those of Huntsville City Schools and Madison County Schools with a start date of August 5, fall break Oct. 5-9, an entire week off for the Thanksgiving holiday, and two entire weeks off during the winter break for teachers and students.
During the second semester, the calendar is slightly different from the other two systems with an earlier spring break falling on March 15-19.
MCS Superintendent Robby Parker said the three superintendents collaborated to try to mirror the calendars as close as possible. He said it was unfortunate that Huntsville and Madison County opted for a later spring break instead of aligning it to coincide with the end of a grading period.
“My recommendation is based on academic reasoning and what is best for the kids,” Parker said. The end of the third nine-week grading period is March 12 leading into Madison’s spring break holiday.
Other holidays in the 2020-2021 calendar include Labor Day, Veterans’ Day, Martin Luther King’s Birthday, and Presidents’ Day.
Other points:
Students will have a minimum of a three-day holiday week-end each month. With the state assessing absenteeism on the state report card, the new calendar would afford families five different opportunities to take week-long vacations during the school year without the need to miss any instructional days
A committee of administrators, central office personnel, teachers and parents drafted the calendar based on the following recommendations from the state superintendent of education: 180 instructional days for students and include at least one weather day.
White, who is over the calendar adoption, school zoning and registration, told the school board that comments have been overwhelmingly positive with the exception of the spring breaks not aligning.
