Shelby County&8217;s 2006-07 school calendar will include an entire week off for Thanksgiving and a break for teachers at some point between July and November.

The new calendars for both Vincent and the rest of the system will also designate the winter holiday period as &8220;Christmas Holidays.&8221;

By the school board&8217;s meeting last week, the proposed calendars had been adjusted to reflect 180 days of school as recently approved by the state Legislature.

Spring break had been moved from March to April, and Thanksgiving holidays had been reduced to three days.

However, Sandy Swindall, a third grade teacher at Meadow View Elementary, noted during last Thursday&8217;s meeting that between the end of July and Nov. 10, there was no break for teachers built into the calendar.

Board member Anne Glass said she felt it was important for teachers, parents and students that the system go back to a week off for Thanksgiving in the upcoming year.

For schools other than Vincent, Superintendent Evan Major recommended that all bad weather days be eliminated.

He moved the May 11 and March 12 bad weather days to November to allow a week for the Thanksgiving holiday.

He also recommended elimination of the Feb. 17 President&8217;s Day Bad Weather Day to make room for Oct. 16 to become a Fall Holiday.

Major recommended moving the Oct. 16 half teacher workday without students and Oct. 17 workday and local professional development day without students to Oct. 12-13.

He also recommended that Winter Holidays be called Christmas Holidays.

Following the changes, the calendar was approved unanimously.

The Vincent calendar was approved as proposed with the only change being the designation of Christmas Holidays as opposed to Winter Holidays.

However, the calendar vote for Vincent was not unanimous. Dr. David Nichols voted &8220;no&8221; and Dr. Lee Doebler abstained.

Nichols cited unacceptable test results at the elementary level as reasoning for his &8220;no&8221; vote.

Martin disagreed, however, calling Nichols data inaccurate.

&8220;I think the (yearround) calendar (used by Vincent) has been good for the kids,&8221; Martin said.

The Shelby County Schools Calendar includes an 86-day first semester and a 94-day second semester.

The Vincent School Calendar includes a 90-day first semester and a 90-day second semester.

In other business, the school board approved Christine Hoffman, current principal at Montevallo Elementary, as new principal at Inverness Elementary.

Hoffman has 18 years experience in public education, including 15 in Shelby County.

She earned her bachelor&8217;s degree in special education from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater and her master&8217;s degree in special education and certification in educational administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham