Henrico School Board approves staggered start for 2026-27 school year
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The 2026-27 school year in Henrico will begin with a staggered start for the first time in the school system’s history, allowing sixth and ninth graders to better acclimate themselves to new buildings without any other students in attendance, while also helping ease the transition for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students.
The Henrico School Board unanimously adopted the calendar during its May 8 meeting.
School system officials have weighed a staggered start for three years but hadn’t enacted it because feedback from stakeholders didn’t support the move until this year, when the system “saw growing community report for that model,” Henrico Schools Chief of Staff Holly Coy told the board during its meeting. (About 56% of the respondents to the school system’s community survey supported the proposal in 2024, but that figure grew to 63% during this year’s survey, while the 28% who opposed the proposal last year fell to 17% this year.)
The plan calls for half of the school system’s pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students to begin school Aug. 24, along with all first- through fifth-graders, sixth-graders and ninth-graders. On the following day, the other half of the pre-k and kindergarten students will attend, while the first group stays home, and all middle and high school students will attend.
The 2026-27 school year will begin about a week later than the two school years it follows; the last day of school will be June 4, 2027. (By comparison, the coming 2025-26 school year will begin Aug. 18 and end May 29, 2026.)
The 2026-27 calendar approved by the board will keep three vacation days during the week of Thanksgiving and reduce the number of half-days from four to three.
Winter break will begin after classes end Friday, Dec. 18, 2026, and students will return Monday, Jan. 4, 2027. The school system will continue to observe three additional religious holidays by closing for Yom Kippur Oct. 21, 2026, Diwali Nov. 9, 2026 and Eid al-Fitr March 9, 2027.
In addition, the calendar will move one professional learning day for teachers from October to September and convert half of one clerical day to a full in-person clerical day Jan. 25 (between the first and second semesters).
“When it comes down to it, this calendar is responsive to staff needs,” Henrico School Board Chair and Tuckahoe District representative Marcie Shea said. “We’re listening to what the staff and parents have advocated for.”
Adoption of the calendar concluded a four-step process of consideration that began when potential calendars were crafted by teacher and student advisory committees. Those preliminary suggestions then went through committee deliberations and received input from the school system’s Teacher Advisory Council before school principals provided their own input and the results of a community-wide stakeholder survey were incorporated.
