Central York board reviews proposed 2025-26 calendar that cuts half days, shifts to full professional-development sessions

Central York School District administrators presented a draft 2025-26 school calendar at the Feb. 24 board meeting that would reduce student attendance days from 182 to 175 by eliminating seven half days and replacing them with full professional-development and planning days.

Superintendent-level administrator Dr. Akins said the district "the proposed calendar actually has a hundred and 75 days. We took the half days away," and framed the change as a trade of split instructional days for more usable professional-development time.

The proposal removes seven half days that administrators and teachers have described as hard on families and difficult to use effectively for staff learning. Administrators said the loss of days is small in hours: because the earlier calendar included half days, the net instructional-hours reduction is roughly "a little over 3 days," not seven…