Henrico School Board adopts pre-Labor Day start for 2022-2023 school year

Henrico County will join the majority of Virginia’s school divisions in a pre-Labor day start to school beginning in the 2022-2023 school year.

The Henrico School Board voted unanimously to approve the new calendars at its board meeting on Thursday.

“It's important that we’re aligned with our regional partners,” said board member Michelle Ogburn. “Being the last county standing is not the place we want to be.”

The 2022 school year will begin Aug. 29, one week prior to Labor Day, which is Sept. 5. The academic year will also end sooner than usual, on June 9, 2023. Holiday breaks will remain the same for the 2022-2023 school year with Winter Break Dec. 19-30 and Spring Break April 3-7.

The following academic year, 2023-2024, will start two weeks before Labor Day and end two weeks earlier than the traditional schedule. The holiday breaks will be shifted back with Winter Break occurring Dec. 25, 2023 to Jan. 5, 2024 and Spring Break scheduled for April 1-5, 2024.

The board’s vote Thursday has no effect on this upcoming school year, which starts on Wednesday, Sept. 8.

Last year, the school board introduced the idea of a pre-Labor Day start for the 2021-22 school year – a change school officials had sought for years but couldn’t initiate because of what was colloquially known as the “Kings Dominion Law,” which required school districts to begin classes after Labor Day unless they applied for a waiver through the state.

Initial community feedback on the proposed change was limited last year, but the effort was postponed in June as the COVID-19 pandemic upended students’ summers.

In early June, Henrico County Public Schools announced a proposal that would start the school year a week earlier, but end on its traditional date in mid-June. Parents were miffed that the school year would be longer, and the school division updated its proposal.

The calendar approved by board members Thursday was changed multiple times throughout the process that began in early June, based on community feedback.

The new pre-Labor Day start will align Henrico with the other 105 school divisions in Virginia that have adopted similar calendars, including neighboring Chesterfield County.

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Anna Bryson is the Henrico Citizen's education reporter and a Report for America corps member. Make a tax-deductible donation to support her work, and RFA will match it dollar for dollar.