ASD board weighs 2 calendars for 2026-27

Aspen Elementary School students leave school for the day on Tuesday. The Aspen School District Board of Education will review two proposed calendars for the 2026-2027 academic year that vary widely in break schedules. The Aspen School District Board of Education will review two proposed school calendars for the 2026-2027 academic year next week, each with drastically different schedules for breaks and school start and end times.

Board members will review the calendars put forth by the district’s calendar committee and they will review results of a survey that asked the community about calendar priorities for the academic year. Community members expressed concern over a proposed calendar — which the committee called a “balanced” school year — that redistributes the standard 175 days of classroom instruction more evenly throughout the year. Students would have a seven-week summer break instead of the traditional 10 weeks.



Staff members and students would return a week earlier than in past years and the academic year would end a week later than in past years. The first day of school for students would be Aug. 3, 2026 and the last day of school would be June 3, 2027.

Under the balanced calendar, winter break would last three weeks from Dec. 21- Jan. 7 and spring break would last two weeks from March 15-26.

Staff and students would also get a week-long fall break from Oct. 5-9. The balanced calendar also places first semester finals before winter break, which traditionally take place the week after winter break.

It would allow students to study and complete their finals before heading into the holiday break. But community members still expressed concern about the timing of the balanced calendar, ASD Superintendent Tharyn Mulberry said. “The community was most concerned about the start time (for the academic year),” Mulberry said.

“They were not in favor of the balanced calendar.” Some staff members were also concerned about the proposed professional development days, which have not been finalized yet, Mulberry said. Some parents were concerned with the elongated breaks proposed in the balanced calendar, ASD board president Christa Gieszl said.

A three-week long winter break during the high season would be especially difficult for parents who work in the service industry, parents told Gieszl. She is not part of the calendar committee but has fielded concerns from community members since the proposed calendars were released last month. The committee also crafted a calendar that resembles past academic calendars.

The traditional calendar proposes the first day of school to be Aug. 11, 2026 and the last day of school to be May 25, 2027. Winter break would last Dec.

21-Jan. 1 and spring break would last March 22-26. Students would have a fall break from Oct.

6-9, while staff held a work day and parent/teacher conferences on Oct. 6 and 7. Students would have 175 total school days under both calendars, but the breaks would be drastically different.

Colorado requires high schools to hold a minimum of 160 instructional days per academic year. Staff members would work 185 days under both calendars. The calendar committee of 23 members — including administrators, teachers and parents — convened in February to build a calendar for the 2026-2027 academic year.

The committee considered the balanced calendar to avoid learning loss with a shorter summer break, reduce burnout with more frequent breaks, enhance academic support throughout the year and align with the tourism industry to allow families to travel and participate in community events without disrupting academic progress, according to a survey sent to families about the calendars. ASD also said it built upon the district’s “legacy of innovation” by exploring new models that enhance learning outcomes and better support the needs of the community. The district surveyed the community from March 19 to April 4 to gather input on the proposed changes, the results of which will be presented to the school board next week Mulberry said.

He declined to release the survey results before presenting them to board members, who did not all sit in on the calendar committee meetings. But the results showed the community largely did not favor the balanced calendar, Mulberry said. “When we’re talking about the school calendar, it’s something that many people are passionate about .

.. and it’s a place where compromise is king.

Very rarely does everybody get what they want in a calendar conversation,” Mulberry said. “But it shouldn’t be something that occurs that alienates complete parts of the community, so we have to be very diligent that everybody’s needs are served, and unfortunately, when that happens, very rarely does it make everyone happy.” Setting the calendar has been a contentious issue for years at ASD.

In 2015, the district was criticized for scheduling Aspen middle and high schools’ outdoor and experiential education trips over Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, two Jewish high holidays. ASD considered a balanced calendar in 2010, also to the dismay of many families at the time . The calendar committee has not made a final recommendation and the school board has not yet held a vote on the final calendar.

According to board policy, it approves the calendar based on academic needs set by the superintendent. The board will review the survey results during its meeting on April 23 and potentially hold a vote on which to implement during the meeting, Mulberry said. It will require approval on a first and second reading, which Gieszl said will give the community plenty of time to come to a board meeting or reach out to members of the board to make comments about the calendars.

“We’re not going to rush this process,” Gieszl said. “We will approve that calendar when it’s ready.”.