Rocky View Schools (RVS) announced they are looking for feedback from parents, students, and staff to help plan school calendars for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years.
Beginning in the 2025-2026, RVS is considering a new fall break in November intended to support staff and student well-being. The school division said that feedback will help the Board to understand what would be a desirable change for RVS school communities.
“Developing a school calendar is an important process that must take into consideration many differing factors and collecting feedback from our RVS families and staff is a key part of the process,” said Board Chair, Fiona Gilbert. “Learning what is valued by our school communities will help determine how best to design the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school year calendars in support of student learning and success.”
For the 2025-2026 calendar, RVS has authored three options that they want feedback on. Option 1 has school starting on August 27, with a week long break in November, Organizational Days on January 28, and June 25 and 26, with the last day of school on June 24. This option has 178 total school days with eight days dedicated to professional learning days.
Option 2 has school starting on August 27, a week long break in November, Organizational Days on June 29 and 30, with the final day of school on June 26. This option has students attending school for 183 days, with eight days dedicated to professional learning.
Option 3 has school beginning on September 2, with a long weekend in November--instead of a week off--with Organizational Days on January 28 and June 29 and 30. This option gives students 182 days of school with eight professional learning days.
As for the 2026-2027 school year, RVS also outlined three options. Option 1 has school starting on August 31, with a week long break in November, and just one Organizational Day on January 28. This would give students 179 school days, with seven professional learning days.
Option 2 for 2026-2027 has school starting on August 31 with a week long November break, no Organizational Days, which gives 180 days of school and seven professional learning days. Option 3 has school beginning on September 2, with only Remembrance day off in November, no Organizational Days in January, totalling 182 school days with seven professional learning days.
According to RVS, Alberta school divisions must provide 475 hours of instruction for Kindergarten students, 950 hours of instruction for Grade 1 – 9 students and 1,000 hours of instruction for Grade 10 – 12 students. School must also end by June 30. However, "it is up to local school divisions to determine how best to organize the school calendar to meet these requirements. All statutory holidays must also be included in the calendar."
Students, staff, and parents have until June 17 to provide feedback to the calendar changes. The full survey is available at RVSEngage.com.
