Gainesville Schools choose Fridays as day ‘off’ for four-day-week in 2021-22

Gainesville School has announced that its 2021-22 school schedule will operate Monday through Thursday. Students will not be in school most Fridays, school officials say. The board announced after its Feb. 22 meeting that the district would transition into a four-day school week but wanted more time before deciding whether to have Monday or Friday as their day off each week.

During the last several months of the pandemic, the district has had in-person learning Monday-Thursday with Friday as a “virtual learning” day when students work from computers at their homes so the schools can conduct a weekly deep cleaning as a precaution against the spread of the covid-19 virus. 

“The board has elected for us to continue having Fridays at home to honor the fact that our community is used to that, and childcare arrangements are already in accordance with that day off. It will allow for some fluidity from this year to next,” a post on the Gainesville R-V School District’s Facebook page said. “You will notice there are a few Fridays where we are in session and have traded that day off for Monday.”

The school reminded students and parents that next year’s Fridays will be completely off, and there will be no “virtual work” to complete. The new 2021-22 school calendar shows classes beginning on Monday, Aug. 23, and concluding on Thursday, May 19, 2022. 

The school day will begin at 7:55 a.m. and end at 3:35 p.m.

Teacher in-service days are scheduled for Aug. 17-19, Sept. 24 and Nov. 5 this year, and Jan. 7, March 25, April 29 and May 20 in 2022.

The Fridays when students are scheduled to be in class include Sept. 10, Dec. 17, Jan. 21, Feb. 25 and March 11. 

Weather “make-up” days, when students are scheduled to be off but may instead attend classes if the district has had to cancel school for inclement weather, are Jan. 17 and 28, Feb. 11 and 21, March 4 and 25, April 1 and 8, and May 6 and 20, 2022.

Thanksgiving break will be Nov. 24-26. Winter break will be Dec. 20-31. Spring break will be March 14-18, 2022. Students will also be out of school on these holiday Mondays: Sept. 6 for Labor Day, Jan. 17 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Feb. 21 for Presidents Day. 

High school graduation will be held Friday, May 20, 2022.

The year will be divided into the following quarters: First quarter will be from Aug. 23 to Oct. 14; second quarter, Oct. 18 to Dec. 17; third quarter, Jan. 3 to March 11; and fourth quarter will be from March 21 until the end of the year, now scheduled for May 19.