The Florida Department of Education has approved Alachua County Public Schools’ request to keep Metcalfe Elementary School on a traditional 10-month calendar. Rawlings Elementary School will proceed with a new year-round calendar for the 2024-25 school year, starting July 16. 

The year-round calendar, available at www.sbac.edu/yearroundschools, does not mean all school, all the time. Instead, it distributes shorter breaks more evenly throughout the year than the traditional 10-month calendar. 

According to a press release, families at both schools are being notified of the change, and given information about the option to file for a zoning exemption. 

Such an exemption could allow Metcalfe students to attend Rawlings and try the year-round calendar. It would also allow Rawlings students to opt out of the year-round calendar by attending nearby Metcalfe. 

Both schools were approved for the state’s year-round school pilot program in February, but members of the School Board of Alachua County voiced concerns over two schools so near to each other, both switching to year-round calendars. 

Only five schools in the state were approved for the pilot program, including P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School and schools in Marion and Brevard County. 

P.K. Yonge does not plan to begin using the year-round calendar until the 2025-26 school year, at the earliest.