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The DeKalb County School District is asking parents to give feedback on three different calendar options for next year, which call for early-release days and a shortened summer.

“In March [Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson] tasked a committee of stakeholders with looking at a balanced calendar for the school district to build more instructional days for the students,” DeKalb Schools spokesman Walter Woods said.

The district has posted the three different calendars and a survey for stakeholders at www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/calendar/proposed.html, which closes April 12. The committee will then review the results of the survey and report its findings to Atkinson, who will present her recommendations to the Board of Education at its May 7 business meeting.

If Atkinson recommends changing the 2012-13 calendar, which was approved last year, the board will then have to vote to amend the calendar, and Woods said residents would have another chance for input.

“We understand people have differing opinions and viewpoints about the calendar and it affects everyone,” Woods said.

Each of the three proposed calendars contain an early-release day each Wednesday, which Woods said was an hour for teachers to undergo professional development training.

“Teachers are in the classroom and they don’t have the opportunities for professional development available in other fields of work. We’re also trying to build that into their week because, due to furlough days, we have less of an opportunity to pull them out for a day of training,” Woods said.