Calendar committee presents draft 2025–26 school calendar with midweek start and professional learning days

The Monroe County School District’s calendar committee presented draft calendars for 2025–26 and 2026–27, recommending a midweek start and continuing the district practice of replacing multiple early-release days with three full professional learning days.

Jennifer Barrios summarized the committee makeup and findings. She said the committee included six members from the union, six from the district, parents, and a student representative, and that stakeholders were overwhelmingly supportive of eliminating early-release days and using full professional learning days instead. The committee noted Florida statutory constraints, including a requirement of 180 student days or a seat time of 900 hours for grades 4–12 and 720 hours for grades K–3; Barrios said the district currently provides “about 1,060 hours,” giving flexibility to structure fewer student days with more seat time.

Highlights for the 2025–26 draft calendar include an August 13 midweek start date, Thanksgiving week as a full week off, spring break March 16–20, and a last student day of May 29. The draft lists three professional learning days: Oct. 10, Feb. 13 and April 17, with additional teacher work days and quarter/end-of-semester dates noted. The committee also identified professional learning days as hurricane makeup days so those dates are pre-identified for emergency use.

Board members praised the elimination of half days and the midweek start, noting positive feedback from families and teachers. The board will receive the calendar drafts for further review and return them for formal approval at an upcoming meeting (discussion referenced Feb. 25 for draft approval steps).

Ending: Staff will post the approved calendar once formal board approval is complete; the committee will continue to refine the 2026–27 draft for future board consideration.