(WTTW News)

Chicago Public Schools students will return to their classrooms this fall to kick off the next school year on Aug. 21 after officials approved a new district calendar.

The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday unanimously approved the calendar for the 2023-24 school year after receiving more than 2,500 comments from the public and education stakeholders last month.

According to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, the consistent theme of those comments was consistency.

“The tone we got from everybody was, ‘Let’s do another year that’s similar,’” he told the board Wednesday, “while still addressing specific issues that we heard from this year.”

Chicago Public Schools' calendar for the 2023-24 academic year. (Chicago Public Schools)

The calendar — which runs from Aug. 21, 2023, until June 6, 2024 — includes 176 days of instruction and provides students with additional time to prepare for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams, as well as the SAT, according to CPS.

The calendar also includes: 12 professional learning days for educators; two weeks of winter vacation and one week of spring vacation; and no instruction during the week of Thanksgiving.

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