ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Thousands of parents of students at Albuquerque Public Schools can start planning for the next school year already.

Last year, the New Mexico Legislature passed House Bill 130, increasing the required instructional hours for students to 1,140.

Districts have been trying to figure out how to accommodate that – and now APS has the answer with its 2024-25 calendar approved Wednesday.

The first day of class is August 7, 2024. The last day is May 30, 2025.

Among the notable changes is the district is adding two instructional days for the 2024-25 school year. They’re also shaving off 15 minutes from the typical school day for most students.

Also, students will get just one day off for Labor Day, not two like with the 2023-24 calendar.

Spring Break will be a few days shorter so it will only last a week. Additionally, APS Spring Break will align with UNM’s from March 17-21, 2025.

APS also had the goal of adding more “uninterrupted” weeks. Those are full, five-day weeks without a day off. They’ll have three more on the 2024-25 calendar.

Before approving the calendar, APS board members discussed Thanksgiving. This past year, students got a full week off, which members noted was challenging for some parents and community members, like daycare providers.

With that in mind, APS is returning to just three days off for Thanksgiving break.

“Is there any other point of view, discussion, or question around the Thanksgiving week? A: It’s probably not really a question, but I’m concerned about just, you know, the daycare services, and who’s going to be taking care of those kids if we extend that week,” said Ronalda Tome-Warito, the vice president of the APS board.

The APS board got a lot of feedback from the community before Wednesday night’s meeting. Some of those decisions came from a survey parents, staff and students could take.

For this year’s survey, more than 13,000 people responded. They say that’s about three times the number of people they got last year.

Respondents provided their input on topics such as when the year should start, where the extra days should go on the calendar and more.

One of the most significant questions was: How well is the current calendar working?

Only 8% said it was working well for them.

That’s part of the reason they made some changes next year. Still, some people are happy but others aren’t thrilled with adding more instructional days.

“And the days off we get, the vacation time where we’re able to maybe stay an extra day longer or sleep in another day, in my opinion, are so much more beneficial than an extra day of in-school learning,” Kimberly Garley said.

Another notable change is they will add two parent-teacher conferences next year for students grades 6-12. They also revised the calendar to have the last day of school be May 29, 2025, instead of May 30, and for the return from winter break to be January 7, not January 8.

Officials say they did this so a professional development day, scheduled for January 7, will be held May 30 instead.