Start Of 22-23 School Year Pushed Back to August 31st

Holidays, Breaks, and Last Day Remain Unchanged

Darren Doyle, story:
The start of school for the 2022-23 calendar year has been delayed until August 31st, according to Superintendent of Edmonson County Schools Brian Alexander.

Mr. Alexander said the calendar change was voted upon by the school board at last night's meeting, which stemmed from a newly discovered major problem with buried HVAC pipes that are under the high school and its parking lot. Sediment compacted in the pipes over the years has delayed the ongoing construction project at ECHS and was discovered just last week.

Alan Talley, Director of Pupil Personnel, emailed all staff earlier today and discussed the changes. In his email, he noted that the goal was to find a way to delay the start of school, while keeping the last day the same, as well as keeping the holidays and normal breaks in place, with no change.

"We are able to do this by adding approximately 20 minutes to the student's school day," he said in the email. "The first day of school with students will now be August 31st."

This change will NOT affect normal breaks, such as holidays, fair day, spring break, fall break, and the last day of school, as they all remain unchanged. Only one day that was scheduled for school to be out of session is now back, which was March 17th. Mr. Alexander said that this was simply a bonus day, as there were no days off in the month of March.

Talley also stated "by starting with students as late as we plan to, we are able to utilize the same calendar option we used in 2020-2021 (Variable Instruction Calendar).  This calendar waives the 170-day minimum with students as long as we meet 1062 instructional hours.  By adding approximately 20 minutes to the school day, we are able to meet the 1062 instructional hours in 162 school days (a normal year is 176 days)."

Mr. Alexander said the school board looked for silver linings to the decision and that there are advantages to the schedule change, such as a longer summer break, not having to be on a hot school bus in August, and that with available NTI days, there are still 13 days to utilize in the event of winter or severe weather.

"We know this will inconvenience some with child care situations and other schedule changes and we apologize for that," Alexander said. "We are certainly aware of potential problems this may cause; however, we are working as hard as we can to solve our construction issues, which he had no control over. I want to credit Mr. Talley for the work he's done to accommodate our needs and I'm grateful to our school board for being flexible about this situation. We ask for your patience and understanding, as this is a necessary decision."

Alexander said events like the Back to School Bash and various open houses will be rescheduled to coincide with the delayed start of school.

To see the full updated school calendar, visit the County School Calendar Page on our site, where the calendar is always available 24/7.