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Early Start Calendar

Be in school on day one!Be in school on Day One!

Milwaukee Public Schools follows an early start calendar for its high schools, middle schools, and some elementary schools. The early start calendar has a number of advantages that promote student success: students have more weeks of instruction prior to national ACT and AP testing dates; the first semester will end in December rather than carrying over after the holiday break; and students will have the opportunity to participate in the June Term (J-term) to catch up or get ahead.

The first day of school for students attending schools on the Early Start Calendar is Aug 17, 2020.

Please make sure your student is at school the first day and every day. If your child will not be in school on August 17, please tell the school now. Failure to notify the school that your child will not be present on Aug 17, 2020 may result in your child losing his or her assignment in our school.

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  Which schools will follow the Early Start Calendar?
  • ALBA
  • Alliance
  • Assata
  • Audubon Middle School
  • Audubon High School
  • Banner Prep
  • Bay View
  • Bradley Tech
  • Congress Elementary
  • Douglas
  • Groppi
  • Golda Meir
  • Hamilton
  • Hawthorne
  • Lad Lake Synergy
  • Lincoln Center for the Arts
  • MacDowell
  • Madison HS
  • Marvin E. Pratt
  • Metcalfe
  • Milwaukee High School of the Arts
  • Milwaukee Marshall High School
  • Milwaukee School of Languages
  • Morse MS
  • North Division
  • NOVA High School
  • Obama SCTE
  • Project Stay
  • Pulaski
  • Reagan
  • River Trail
  • Riverside University High School
  • Roosevelt MS
  • Rufus King MS
  • Rufus King HS
  • South Division
  • Southeastern
  • Starms Discovery
  • Starms Early Childhood
  • Transition
  • Vincent
  • Washington
  • WCLL
  • Webster Secondary
  • Wedgewood
  Which schools will follow the Traditional Calendar?
  • 53rd Street
  • 81st Street
  • 95th Street
  • AAL
  • Alcott
  • Allen-Field
  • Auer
  • Barbee
  • Barton
  • Bethune
  • Brown
  • Browning
  • Bruce
  • Bryant
  • Burbank
  • Burdick
  • Carson
  • Carver
  • Cass
  • Clarke
  • Clemens
  • Clement
  • Cooper
  • Craig
  • Curtin
  • Doerfler
  • Elm
  • Emerson
  • Engleburg
  • Fairview
  • Fernwood
  • Forest Home
  • Franklin
  • Fratney
  • Gaenslen
  • Garland
  • Goodrich
  • Grant
  • Grant Gordon (formerly Lee) Learning Center
  • Grantosa
  • Green Bay
  • Greenfield
  • Hampton
  • Hartford
  • Hawley
  • Hayes
  • Hi-Mount
  • Holmes
  • Honey Creek
  • Hopkins/Lloyd
  • Howard
  • Humboldt Park
  • IDEAL
  • Jackson
  • Kagel
  • Keefe
  • Kilbourn
  • Kluge
  • LaFollette
  • Lancaster
  • Lee Learning Center (now Grant Gordon Learning Center)
  • Lincoln Avenue
  • Longfellow
  • Lowell
  • MACL
  • Manitoba
  • Maple Tree
  • Maryland
  • Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Milw. German Immersion
  • Milw. Parkside
  • Milw. Sign Language  
  • Milw. French Immersion
  • Milw. Spanish Immersion
  • Mitchell
  • Morgandale
  • Neeskara
  • NOVA Tech
  • Parkview
  • Pierce
  • Riley  
  • Rogers
  • Sherman
  • Siefert
  • Story
  • Stuart
  • Thoreau
  • Thurston Woods
  • Townsend
  • Trowbridge
  • Victory
  • Vieau
  • Westside Academy
  • Whitman
  • Whittier
  • Zablocki
  What calendars do charter/partnership schools follow?

Assata, Banner Prep, Lad Lake Synergy, NOVA High School, and Southeastern follow the Early Start Calendar.

IDEAL, NOVA Tech and Whittier follow the Traditional Calendar.

The following schools have their own calendars (click to download each school's calendar):

  1. ALBA
  2. Alliance
  3. Carmen NW High School
  4. Carmen NW Middle School
  5. Carmen South
  6. Carmen Southeast
  7. Grandview
  8. HAPA
  9. Highland Community School
  10. Honey Creek
  11. KT Daniels
  12. La Causa
  13. MC2
  14. Milwaukee College Prep (includes all 4 campuses)
  15. Milwaukee Environmental Sciences
  16. Milwaukee Excellence
  17. Next Door
  18. Shalom

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors voted unanimously to move all secondary schools, schools on the International Baccalaureate calendar and year-round schools to an early start on August 14, 2017 at its December 22, 2016 meeting.

The board also asked the administration to pursue further research on changing the K-8 elementary school calendar in the future.  Traditional elementary schools will start on Sept. 5, 2017.

The early start calendar proposal is part of the district's plan to improve outcomes for students. While MPS schools are showing signs of growth and have moved up a grade in the state report card, there is much work to do, particularly in high schools and middle schools:

  • The four-year high school graduation rate in MPS is 58.2 percent, compared to 88.4 percent statewide
  • Eighty-three of the district's 158 schools remain on the state's "Fails to Meet Expectations" or "Meets Few Expectations" list
  • The average ACT composite score in MPS is 16.5, versus 20.1 statewide

The proposed change to the calendar allows for the addition of a "J-term", a four-week optional credit recovery and enrichment program in June in between the end of the regular school year and traditional summer school in July. The additional learning time the J-term provides, along with the early start in mid-August, gives students more time to catch up, keep up and get ahead in school.

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