Wood County Board of Education members Ron Tice and Judy Johnson, Wood County Schools Superintendent Christie Willis and Board President Justin Raber listen to a presentation on the 2026-27 school calendar during Tuesday’s night meeting. Board members Debbie Hendershot and Randy Modesitt participated by phone. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)
PARKERSBURG – The Wood County Board of Education got an update on the proposed 2026-27 school calendar during Tuesday’s regular board meeting.
Board members Ron Tice and Judy Johnson, Wood County Schools Superintendent Christie Willis and Board President Justin Raber all attended in person while board members Debbie Hendershot and Randy Modesitt participated by phone.
Wood County Schools Director of Elementary Education Heather Grant gave a report about work being done by school officials on the calendar committee in formulating the 2026-27 school calendar. The committee is made up of school officials from the elementary, middle and high schools, teachers, service personnel and the central office.
“We have representation from all the various stakeholders in the community,” Grant said.
The state has multiple requirements for a school calendar, Grant said.
The district is required to have 180 days of instruction plus 20 non-instructional days which equals a 200-day calendar which includes five professional learning days and a two-hour faculty Senate period.
The calendar includes seven legal holidays which must be taken off including Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Memorial Day.
The calendar also includes two preparation days to open and close the schools for teachers, a parent-teacher conference day, three curriculum development days, six outside school environment days (or OS days), one Election Day and six faculty Senate Days.
Graduations cannot be scheduled until the 175th instructional day with public hearings published in the local newspapers, Grant said.
The committee put out questions to the public with around 3,000 people responding. State officials wanted to gauge how people reacted to a balanced calendar that would shorten summer break and redistribute time off into shorter breaks throughout the year.
Around 62% of respondents wanted the school year to start in mid-August and end the first week of June while 67% did not want a balanced calendar approach.
Around 79% liked having a two-week Christmas break that allows time with family as well as allows for travel if wanted.
Many people felt Spring Break needed to be aligned with Easter. They also looked at a possible “second Spring Break” in the stretch of time between Christmas until the end of school where there is only one Spring Break.
“There were 43% who would like us to consider having a second Spring Break,” Grant said.
The proposed calendar has a starting time in mid-August and goes to the first week of June. It includes a two-week Christmas break. The Spring Break will align with Easter being the week after. Right now students would have to be in school on Good Friday.
“We got to looking and we knew we couldn’t put a full second week of Spring Break in there,” Grant said. “We started counting and there were 12 weeks between the end of Christmas break and Spring Break.”
About six weeks in the middle of that is Valentines Day and Super Bowl Sunday so they used some time on the Friday before and the Monday and Tuesday after to have a mini-break.
“That is exactly halfway between Christmas and Spring Break,” Grant said, adding staff and teachers get a four-day weekend off while students get a five-day weekend off.
They have professional learning days in the fall with Presidents Day and Columbus Day to allow students off with parents who also get those days off. They did it this school year and it worked out for many families, Grant said.
“All three high schools get their own graduation dates,” she said.
Tice praised the committee for the work they did, saying the calendar committee is a “job” as he was on it for a few years in the past.
“Everyone was trying to please everyone and you just can’t do it,” he said.
There will be one more public hearing on the new calendar at the next board meeting and the board will vote on it that evening, Raber said.
The next board meeting will be held Dec. 16 at Parkersburg South High School.