Haleyville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Bill Bishop, left, and Winston County Schools Superintendent Jeff Scott each former transportation directors for their districts, saw the need to align their school calendars to assist the bus transportation situation.
WINSTON COUNTY - The first alignment of school calendars between Haleyville City and Winston County’s school systems in several years goes back to superintendents for each system having been transportation supervisors in the past, understanding that the county system provides buses for city school routes.
Chere Fetter, director of instructional services, who also works with the calendar committee for Haleyville City Schools, noted the goal in developing the calendar for the 2026-2027 school year was to work closely with Winston County Schools.
“Winston County provides our transportation for our students, so we wanted to make that as easy as possible for Winston County,” Fetter explained.
The alignment of the school calendars for both school systems calls for the starting date for students in each system being Friday, Aug. 7. The Christmas break for each system will be identical, with students out of school from December 21-January 4. Students will return to class on Tuesday, January 5, in both systems.
Students will be off Monday, Feb. 15, off for Presidents’ Day in both systems. HCS will treat the day as a professional development/flex day and Winston County Schools will treat it as a teacher in-service day, school officials stated.
Spring break for both systems will take place March 22-26. The last day for HCS students will be May 20, with the last day for Winston County Schools students being May 19, according to their respective calendars.
“This is the closest it has been aligned in several years,” Fetter confirmed.
The biggest difference will be in October, with HCS having a teacher professional development or flex day on Monday, Oct. 12, meaning no students will be on campus that day.
“If any teachers have worked on professional development in the summer, then they can use that time in the summer, and convert it to this flex day and have that day off,” Fetter explained.
Winston County Schools will have class that day, school officials said.
Winston County Schools will observefall break Oct. 28-30, according to their school calendar. HCS will have regular classes that week, school officials added.
“We wanted to try to make it easier on the parents, as well,” Fetter stated. “We worked closely with leadership at Winston County Schools, to the best of our ability, to make the calendars mesh the best we could.”
See complete story in the Northwest Alabamian.
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