By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Students in the Alabaster City Schools district will return to classes on Wednesday, Aug. 9, following the summer break, and will attend a total of 179 class days during the 2017-2018 school year, according to the academic calendar recently approved by the city’s Board of Education.

The School Board voted to approve the calendar during an April 26 special-called meeting, which came at the end of a weeklong public comment period on the proposed calendar.

During the first semester, students will be out on Sept. 4 for Labor Day, Oct. 9 for Columbus Day, Nov. 10 for Veterans Day and from Nov. 22-24 for the Thanksgiving break.

The final class day of the first semester will be on Friday, Dec. 15, when students would be dismissed at 1 p.m.

Students would be out from Monday, Dec. 18, to Thursday, Jan. 4, 2018, with a teacher work day on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2018.

ACS leaders recently announced the city’s new high school will not open this August, as originally planned, but instead will open to students on Jan. 3, 2018. The school system will complete the move from the current high school to the new school off Thompson Road during the Christmas break.

During the second semester, students will be out on Jan. 15, 2018, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Feb. 19, 2018, for Presidents Day and March 9, 2018, for a teacher work day.

The ACS spring break will be from March 26-30, 2018, and students will be out on April 20, 2018, for a weather day before the second semester ends at 1 p.m. on May 24, 2018.

Thompson High School’s graduation is scheduled for Tuesday, May 22, 2018.

As of May 3, ACS had not yet released the standardized testing dates, as they had not yet been released by the Alabama Department of Education.

Grades will be sent home on Oct. 13, Jan. 5, 2018, March 16, 2018 and May 25, 2018.