29 school districts in the state are starting classes a few weeks earlier than others

The Mississippi Department of Education requires 180 days of instruction, and these schools have elected to shorten the traditional summer break to allow more time off throughout the year.

Robert Chapman is the Public Information Officer for Clinton Public School District. He says the district dispersed surveys asking if faculty and parents would want to move to the new format, with 70% of parents and over 80% of teachers supporting the decision.

"One of the things we did tell our teachers... this is not a permanent calendar." he said. "If it works this year, great.. but if it doesn't work, we'll go back to the traditional calendar."

The number of schools implementing the new schedule is more than double the number that did so last year. Billy Ellzey is the Superintendent at the Pascagoula-Gautier School District, which is making the change this year. He says he hopes to see the new calendar help with some of the teacher retention challenges in the state.

"I had multiple teachers tell me they were thinking about retiring but now, with this, they'll stay." he said. "I was really happy to hear that... they said 'this will keep us from being too burned out, we can keep going.'"

Both Clinton and Pascagoula-Gautier welcomed faculty back to school the 17th.