By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

HOOVER—Hoover City Schools students will start the 2016-2017 academic year more than a week earlier than they did the 2015-2016 year, according to the calendar approved by the board of education during a Jan. 12 meeting.

The approved calendar was the more popular of two options presented to both employees and parents for a vote, according to HCS Assistant Superintendent of Schools Melody Greene.

The approved calendar includes 180 instructional days for students and 188 days for teachers.

The 2016-2017 academic year will begin for students on Aug. 4. The calendar includes days off for Labor Day, Veterans Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Two weather make-up days are scheduled for April 14 and 17, 2017, if not needed they will be school holidays.

Students will receive a week off for Thanksgiving vacation, Nov. 21-25. Winter vacation will be from Dec. 19- Jan. 3, 2017, and spring vacation is scheduled from March 27-31, 2017.

Students will also receive Oct. 10 off for a teacher workday.

The last day of classes for students will be May 24, 2017. Spain Park High School Graduation will be May 23, 2017, and Hoover High School graduation will be May 24, 2017.

Feedback about the calendar was mostly positive, and the most common negative comment “was the fact that we’re starting school early,” Greene said.

Hoover BOE member and Hoover Schools parent Jill Ganus Veitch also voiced concern about the Aug. 4 start date and how it could impact students’ ability to get summer jobs.

“My concern is we are coming back so early,” Veitch said. “It seems like if your child is involved in band or sports…(they’re reporting to school) almost in the middle of July.”

HCS Superintendent Dr. Kathy Murphy suggested considering the Alabama Department of Education’s option of 1,080 hours of instruction rather than 180 days of instruction in order to create a more flexible schedule.

“Rather than 180 days, we could do 1,080 hours of instruction,” Murphy said. “If the days didn’t work for us, we could adjust the days’ lengths.”

The Hoover BOE approved the 2016-2017 academic calendar by a four to one vote, with Veitch voting against it.