Posted Date: 07/25/2024
All Beauregard Parish public schools will start the new school year on August 8, 2024, and end on May 22, 2025, for students across the parish.
For the two schools that have been operating on the four-day school schedule – Merryville High School and Singer High School – no major changes will be made in their school calendars.
However, all other public schools in the parish will operate on a hybrid schedule which includes a five-day week through October and a four-day week beginning in November. Under this schedule, DeRidder schools, East Beauregard schools, South Beauregard schools, and the Beauregard Alternative program will meet on Fridays in August and September, on October 11 and 18, 2024, and on March 7, 2025. All other Fridays will be non-school days.
“The new schedule was developed over the course of several months with the input of stakeholders who were interested in unifying the start and end dates for all schools, retaining the holidays from previous calendars, and exploring a four-day option for all schools,” explained Cord Ensminger, Assistant Superintendent. “As always in developing the school calendar, state regulations for instructional time must also be met.”
Schools days will begin earlier than previously for the hybrid schedule, with bells ringing for all schools at 7:40 a.m. Merryville and Singer schools will dismiss at 3:58 p.m. while all other schools will dismiss at 3:17 p.m. These times were developed to follow state regulations regarding instructional time in schools.
The Louisiana Handbook for School Administrators states that local education agencies are required to ensure each school year calendar has a minimum of 63,720 minutes of instructional time. By expanding the school day by 15 minutes, this requirement is being met for the 2024-2025 school year in Beauregard Parish schools, according to Ensminger.
Teachers from all schools will report for staff development days August 5-7, 2024, before students return to classes on August 8.