The Effingham County Board of Education approved the 2011-12 academic calendar for pre-K, which begins with pre-planning Aug. 22, more than three weeks after the K-12 calendar.

In compliance with Gov. Nathan Deal’s changes to the statewide, lottery funded pre-K program, the calendar is reduced to 160 days for students and 169 for teachers.

Where K-12 teachers will begin pre-planning July 28 and students will start Aug. 4, pre-K teachers will have only three days of pre-planning and school starts Aug 25. The last day of school for all grades will be May 23, with post-planning for staff May 24-25.

Holidays for pre-K students will be close to the same as K-12, but during fall break in October and winter break in February, pre-K breaks will start the day before. There are three extra holidays for pre-K: Sept. 14, Jan. 25 and March 7. These days are scheduled as early release days for all grades, but they will be holidays for pre-K and planning days for teachers.

In addition to the changes in the pre-K calendar, the BoE voted to eliminate one teaching position from pre-K, as the funding was reduced by one class.