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On Tuesday, March 24, the LCPS School Board voted to make two amendments to the calendar for the remainder of the 2025-2026 school year.
The first change was to cancel school on April 21, 2026, to allow schools to be used as voting places for the special election in Virginia, regarding the redistricting of the congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterms.
The second change was to make the last day of school – Monday, June 15 – a work day for teachers, thereby shifting the last day of school for students to Friday, June 12. This change was in response to criticism from communities across Loudoun County regarding the fact that the last day of school was on a Monday, which would’ve been the only day of school for students that week.
Junior Eduard Medina Mavarez is one student from Rock Ridge in support of the change. “You start the week by ending school, which doesn’t make any sense,” Mavarez said.
This sentiment was felt across grade levels, including sophomore Malak Barakat, who didn’t see the purpose of finishing the school year on a Monday. “My opinion on the last day of school was actually crazy because there was no point in it being on a Monday and then the rest of the week being summer,” Barakat said.
Additionally, for middle and high school students, this also meant that the last day of school would’ve ended on an A day. However, with the new change in the calendar, the last day of school will now end on a B day.
The changes made on the last day of school have largely been popular among the student body at Rock Ridge. “[Now] we get to end [school] off on a weekend, and then the next week is summer,” Barakat said.
While many students feel happy that the last day of school is now on a Friday, some teachers, such as social sciences teacher Colin Pendergast, don’t see a difference. “I don’t necessarily care too much, you know,” Pendergast said. “It’s all still part of my schedule.”
Teachers are also required to show up for the graduation ceremony at the end of the school year, and this year’s graduation is much later, with it being scheduled on Thursday, June 18 – something some teachers aren’t a fan of. “It’s kind of annoying to have that little obligation in the middle of it and be like ‘Oh, you have to come back in 6 more days’ and you’re like ‘Why?” Pendergast said. “That probably could have been scheduled a little bit better.”
According to Algonkian District School Board Member April Chandler, there’s a lot that goes into creating the calendar for the school year. “We are required by law to meet a certain number of days or a certain number of hours [in school],” Chandler said. “[We added school on June 15] to make sure that we had the right number of days and the right number of hours in school,” Chandler said.
Despite removing June 15 from the calendar, Chandler said she isn’t concerned about any negative consequences of being in school for one less day. “ I can’t say that I would be incredibly worried about that one day for learning loss, because, ultimately, it’s the end of the school year.”
Additionally, Chandler noted that LCPS’s approach to the calendar allows them to lose a certain number of school days without needing to modify the calendar. “We know that because of the way we approach our calendar and our planning, that we don’t have to add time or days up to 15 days because of the extra time that’s built into every [school] day.”
When deciding to change the last day, the school board took the special election into consideration. “We had the idea of needing to cancel on the 21st, so we had a conversation about ‘Well, we’re going to have to do this, should we clean this up and get rid of that Monday [in June]?’” Chandler said. “It was something the board decided was sufficient.”
Having the last day of school on a Monday was unpopular among the LCPS community. When discussing the possibility of future school years ending on a Monday, Chandler did not rule that possibility out. “I have learned [to] never say never, but I would guess that we’ll learn from this experience, and I, for one, would not like to see another Monday [as the] last day of school,” Chandler said.
