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The Prince William County School Board has voted unanimously in favor of a new 2021-22 school year calendar developed to reflect the diversity of the community. The approved calendar keeps a full two-week winter break, but extends the school year by five days.
School staff originally developed two calendar options for the school board to consider, one with traditional holidays and the other incorporating the new holidays. That calendar option took days away from Christmas break and the Monday after spring break.
The school board asked for a third option that would restore the full winter break and school officials presented “Option C’ at Wednesday night’s meeting.
The new school calendar includes a winter break over Christmas and New Year’s Day and a spring break near Easter. Other holidays off include Labor Day, Veterans Day, Election Day, Thanksgiving break, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Inauguration Day, Washington’s Birthday/President’s Day and Memorial Day.
The new calendar adds the Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah; the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur; Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, and the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr.
To account for those days, the 2021-22 school year will end on June 15 rather than June 10.