Students at this SC school system will end fall semester before winter break in 2023. Here’s why

Greenville County public school students will start school earlier than normal next year to ensure the first semester ends before winter break.

School will begin Aug. 8, 2023 with the last day being Wednesday, May 22, 2024. The current year began Aug. 15 and runs until June 2.

“This adjustment will be academically beneficial to students and the feedback received regarding this shift was extremely positive, with 74% of respondents in favor,” the district said in a statement.

That means midterms, finals and state testing will take place before students leave for winter break, rather than after the two-week break.

Before now, individual schools determined whether testing would take place before winter break, which meant students lost days of instruction and went back to classes after already taking finals.

Those testing after winter break took finals “when the content was not as fresh for them,” the district said.

The district heard from 1,200 people regarding the change.

Greenville County Schools is the largest district in South Carolina with 106 schools and nearly 77,000 students.

This story was originally published December 16, 2022 at 4:47 PM.