SUFFOLK, Va. — Suffolk Public Schools is currently collecting feedback about the potential to start the new school year before Labor Day.
“If you’ve talked to our school board members, this conversation has probably been going off and on for about a decade,” said Suffolk Public Schools Superintendent Dr. John Gordon III.
“I’ve always been for it," said Suffolk parent Nichole Demski. "We’re from Florida. School always started before Labor Day and we’re also a military family. So, lining up our vacations with our out-of-town family is always more difficult.”
Come next year, Demski will have four children within Suffolk Public Schools. She said starting the 2024-2025 year earlier will help align her children’s sports and academic schedule.
"My daughter plays field hockey and it starts in, I think, July," she said. "So, this would make it a lot easier because we would already have to be here.”
“We actually did a survey on this last year and our students were the ones that kind of had a really the most pushback,” Dr. Gordon said.
Dr. Gordon said school administrators wanted to take another look at a pre-Labor Day after looking at other school divisions. So, they issued another survey for feedback that was emailed to parents.
“We do try as a region to align our calendars as closely as possible because we do have people who live and working in neighboring cities,” explained Suffolk Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Dr. Okema Branch.
Dr. Gordon said the survey even asks parents if they’d like to start the upcoming school year before Labor Day or wait until 2025.
“Because we wanted to give people that option and we also want to give the school board that option because I know they have probably been hearing from constituents on other sides on how they feel,” Dr. Gordon said.
Suffolk school leaders said if they change the upcoming school calendar, the 2024-2025 year would start August 26 and end June 6, 2025.
The deadline to complete the survey is February 1. Dr. Gordon said school staff will present the survey results to the school board at their meeting next week.