West Memphis schools moving back to more traditional calendar
New legislative measure could do away with alternate schedules
By Ralph Hardin
news@theeveningtimes.com
Students and staff in the West Memphis School District will be heading back to class from summer break this year after the school board approved a new calendar for the district that looks closer to a more traditional school year than the “hybrid” calendar the district has used for the past few years.
In February, the district polled students, staff and parents on which of three calendar options they preferred for the 2025-26 school year.
One option was to use the traditional school calendar used by the Arkansas Department of Education. Another was to keep a similar schedule to the one currently in place for the 2024-25 school year.
And Option C was a slightly stretched-out version of the traditional calendar, running from Aug. 5, 2025 to May 29, 2026. The winner, out of more than 1,500 votes cast, was Option C.
The new calendar is basically a traditional school calendar with the start date moved up a week to allow for a few more off days during the year, and the final day shifted back a few days to end the school year ahead of Memorial Day.
The new calendar meets all of the mandatory requirements of the state board’s instructional hours and other guidelines.
However, none of that may matter soon, as state lawmakers are currently considering a measure that would standardize school calendars across Arkansas.
Arkansas House Bill 1864 proposes a standardized school calendar starting on or after July 1 and ending June 30.
The bill mandates a minimum of 178 school days, 1,068 instructional hours, and 190 teacher contract days.
This could alter the way Marion, West Memphis and otehr state school districts approach the school year, including several who have adopted a fourday school week to improve teacher retention and student attendance.
The bill would redefine the school calendar for the 202627 school year. HB 1864 was filed the Wednesday before Spring Break and is sponsored by Rep. Wade Andrews (R-Camden) and Sen. Jane English (R-North Little Rock). The bill’s title: “To amend provisions of the Arkansas Code to improve efficiency in student instruction; and to create a standardized flexible school calendar system for public schools.”
The bill immediately states that Arkansas will uniformly begin school on or after July 1 and end on June 30. It also states that it must comply with the number of studentteacher interaction days or hours required by the Standard for Accreditation of Arkansas Public Schools and School Districts established by the State Board of Education. This includes both public schools and open-enrollment public charter schools.
Later in the bill, it says that schools must adopt a calendar that includes a minimum of 178 days, 1,068 instructional
See CALENDAR, page A3 CALENDAR
From page A1
hours, and a minimum of 190 teacher contract days. The bill also makes allowances for onsite make-up days. Any school day on which less than six hours of instruction are provided to students will be counted as a half-school day if more than three hours of instruction are provided.
The bill repeals several conflicting Arkansas codes (e.g., definitions of a 12-month school year, a four-day school week, delay or early release, make-up days) to establish a more uniform approach to the school calendar.
