Rio Rancho 2026-27 school year calendars approved

RIO RANCHO — Students with Rio Rancho Public Schools will start the 2026-27 school year at the same time as this school year but end the year before Memorial Day weekend.

In addition, RioTECH will begin its second school year in history sharing the same calendar as Rio Rancho's secondary schools, and a new Puesta Del Sol Elementary School will get its first calendar, with slightly different dates than Shining Stars Preschool.

Those bookends and other key dates were agreed upon Monday, when the RRPS Board of Education met to approve the 2026-27 school year calendars. 

Graduation dates, however, are still to be determined, but officials said Independence High School will not have a winter ceremony next school year.

RRPS Superintendent Dr. Sue Cleveland said during the board meeting that the school district does not have a lot of control over each calendar, even though there is a committee with principals and parents responsible for making recommendations.

"We are greatly constrained by ... state regulations," including the number of instructional and testing days, Cleveland said. "So there may be a little flexibility with the calendar, but not a lot. It doesn't (change) very much from year to year."

On that note, each calendar includes 190 instructional days, the same amount as this school year, according to draft calendars presented to the board.

Similar to this school year, each 2026-27 calendar also includes school year start dates in the first week of August. Elementary and secondary school students will begin classes on Thursday, Aug. 6, much like the Thursday, Aug. 7, start date this school year. 

Pre-K at Puesta Del Sol will start Aug. 10 and end May 28, according to a draft calendar. The calendar also includes 58 1/2 hours of family engagement hours, another contrast to other school calendars. Shining Stars, meanwhile, will follow the elementary instructional calendar, which includes an Aug. 7 start date.

RRPS's spring break will occur in March, not April, during the 2026-27 school year, according to a comparison of this year's calendar and the upcoming one.

The 2026-27 school year will end before Memorial Day 2027, which could have an impact on student attendance, Cleveland said during the school board meeting.

"You can have school after Memorial Day, but unless there are finals, they won't come," she said. "We find, even at the elementary level, very few families bring their children back after Memorial Day."

In a change for RioTECH, the high school dedicated to career-technical education programming that allows students to take college-level credits, will abandon its calendar with Central New Mexico Community College next year.

Renee Saucedo, secondary school improvement officer for RRPS, said the fact that RioTECH was in school this past spring while other RRPS schools were out "caused problems," ranging from security to transportation operations, which led to some family complaints.

"The (RioTECH) kids are in college, so if we're on spring break and they have college classes, they've got to get to those classes," Saucedo said. "On the reverse side of that, if they have their high school classes and there are no college classes, they can come in late or leave early."

Cleveland responded that district officials have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't on an operational level during RioTECH's first year.

"We've learned quite a bit, so I think the changes will work much better next year," she said. 

Peggy Johnston, human resources director for Rio Rancho Public Schools, who made the presentation to the school board on the draft calendars, said district officials work "diligently to align with the regulations of the Legislature and the New Mexico Public Education Department ... while also taking into account input from each school site, department and the Rio Rancho School Employees Union."