The clock is changing, and so are your mornings.
Bullitt County released the 2026-2027 school calendar, including new start and end times for everyone.
The district reassessed school time requirements to create a more effective and balanced schedule. While the process sparked debate over how daily routines would shift, leaders ultimately used community feedback to make changes to better support students. Even so, others still question whether these decisions fully address their concerns, unsatisfied with the conclusions given.
Bullitt county requires 1,062 instructional hours, 170 student attendance days and 390 daily instructional minutes to complete a full school year. In previous years, the daily minutes of elementary, middle and high school have been slightly inconsistent. Elementary students had 375 minutes of school, middle school students had 395 minutes, while high school students had 385 minutes. This disparity is being fixed with the new school start and end times.
When trying to decide on the daily schedule other alternatives were considered. Adding a block schedule to all Bullitt County schools was one of these options. Already Hebron Middle school has tested this and while there are benefits to this new learning environment, ultimately it is up to individual schools to determine whether block schedule is more beneficial than traditional.
On top of deciding daily schedules, the board also debated the set-up of the whole year. When asking the community about their yearly preferences a new option popped up, a variable calendar. This calendar does not have a 170 days of student attendance requirement, only a 1,062 hour rule. Instead of a 170 day calendar, a 165 day school year would be possible. Using community feedback the Board of Education finally reached a decision.
The 2026-2027 school year begins on Aug. 12 and ends on May 26. School times have changed as follows. High school begins at 7:10 and ends at 2:05, middle school begins at 8:10 and ends at 3:05, finally elementary school begins at 9:10 and ends at 4:05. This change evens all of the daily minutes to 390. While many parents are concerned about the change in routine, the district ultimately decided that this schedule was the most beneficial to both students and schools.
