Birmingham City Schools To Consider Revised School Calendar

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The Birmingham Board of Education was set to approve a revised school calendar for the 2021-22 school year Tuesday that involved a July start to the school year, but will now hold off on the decision, pending the results of a parent survey.

The options for the proposed changes to the academic calendar include a revised start to the school year and short breaks throughout the year.

"The pandemic has changed the way we teach, and the way we learned this year," Superintendent Mark Sullivan said. "We have been in remote teaching and learning for most of this year. We must develop different strategies to meet our students' needs."

Kecia Jackson, The school system's director of assessment, accountability and research, said the revised calendar would still include 180 days of instruction. Starting July 19 would lessen "summer slide," and would give students short breaks during the year.

"We know that this is different from what we have done in the past," Jackson said. "This calendar was planned to help meet the needs of our scholars and help them achieve their goals."

When this proposal was originally released, the school system received feedback from the community that mostly opposed the new calendar.

See Sullivan's comments in a video here"

"We have listened to our parents and employees," Sullivan said. "They agree that we need to have an intentional and strategic plan for remediation and enrichment as we emerge from the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic, but they want us to do something different from our original proposal. By starting the school year a few days earlier and using breaks between grading periods to help students catch up or get ahead, we can help address academic problems that developed because of the impact of COVID-19."

Birmingham City Schools has asked parents and employees to review the updated proposal and complete an online survey by noon on March 19.

The school board will consider the results of the survey before taking action on the revised school calendar.