The Oak Park River Forest High School Board of Education has decided to make changes to the 2026-2027 school year calendar.
The Project 2 construction schedule will prolong summer, starting school on Aug. 25, 2026. The first semester will now end Jan. 21, 2027, after winter break, as opposed to late December, before winter break.
The reason for the delayed start is construction on Project 2, the new athletic wing, which is supposed to be completed before the start of the 2026-2027 school year.
“The change for 2026-2027 was precipitated by the fact that we don’t get possession of the new athletic and PE facilities until the 13th of August,” said Principal and Assistant Superintendent Lynda Parker.
Teachers and staff will need time following the construction to settle in, learn the environment, and see what effects that could have on students and teachers, she added.
“We were thinking about how best to transition back into a space no one’s been in and how disruptive that could be for students. If you and your teachers have never used that space before, but everyone is trying to use it at the same time, we risk it being chaotic,” Parker said. “Because of that concern, we wanted to give enough time for the staff to get in there and familiarize themselves with the building so that when students arrive, it will be an easier transition.¨
The Schedule change for the 26-27 school year, developed by the school board’s Calendar Committee, was officially passed Aug. 21. Under the new plan, the second semester is nine days shorter than the first semester, which Parker sees as a potential downside. ¨When that happens, it means those who take a class during the first semester don’t get the same amount of the content, or it’s [more] rushed than what is in the second semester,”
Junior Evan Frank had mixed feelings about the change. “Finals after winter break are inconvenient because we will forget the subjects after break,” he said. However, Frank said that he was looking forward to “a longer summer break.”
Frank said he was just looking forward to seeing how it goes.
History teacher Daniel Martin sees potential problems with the calendar change for Advanced Placement (AP) testing.
¨Ideally, AP tests would be in late May, but they’re not. They’re the first two weeks of May every year,” Martin said. “But those two weeks, basically, I won’t have now, you know, to be able to go and review for the students.¨
The 2026-2027 school year’s calendar change isn’t set in stone for future years, Parker said.
“My hope is that as we pay attention to how things go, as we live that calendar and, with feedback from all stakeholders, we can consider if we pursue further conversation about it,” said Parker.
