After receiving input from parents, students, teachers and administers for more than a month, the Carson City School Board on Tuesday approved an academic calendar for 2026/2027.
The board unanimously approved the 2026-27 academic school calendar, which will adjust early release days to a weekly occurrence on Tuesdays and provide five professional learning days and one teacher work day for educators, where students will not attend school.
Early release days are designed to provide educators and staff with valuable professional development and collaboration time while students have the remainder of the day off. On those designated early release days, all schools in the district will dismiss students earlier than their regular schedules.
The first day of school is scheduled for Tuesday, August 18, 2026, and the last day of School is set for Thursday, June 3, 2027, with Carson High’s graduation scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, June 4.
See the PDF below or go here for the approved academic calendar.
Parent Jamie Stevenson spoke at the meeting and stated she was against the weekly early release days, remarking that it creates more work for teachers and less time in the classroom for students.
“The teachers are already juggling enough,” she said. “Teachers are the experts. Let them teach.”
Presented with two primary options, teachers and individual school administrators provided public comment that advocated for the option that was subsequently approved, often citing necessary state education mandates required for staff to meet as well as the overall effectiveness of collaborative training. The other option would have move the end of the school year to May 28, with school starting August 17 instead of August 18.
School Board Vice President and Trustee Richard Varner said he originally favored the other presented option because he was concerned about less “structural time away from the kids” but said he was convinced by the compelling presentations from teachers and administrators that the option favored “is the best way to go.”
The decision was unanimous. See the video from Tuesday’s meeting below.
