Classes at Liberty County schools, as well as Fort Stewart's and First Presbyterian Christian Academy, will resume Aug. 6 and the last day of the 2012-13 school year will be May 24.

Open houses for the beginning are set for Aug. 2; 3-6 p.m. at Liberty County schools and 4-6 p.m. on post.

Long County schools begin Aug. 10 and end May 24.

In Liberty County public schools, the year's calendar has fewer four-day weekends than the last three years due to the school board’s decision to reinstate former teacher furlough days. Each school will let out 15 minutes earlier than last year to accommodate the days being added back into the calendar. That means elementary schools will let out at 2:15 p.m. and middle and high schools at 3:10 p.m.

Local school officials say they made the calendar to accommodate as many pretesting lessons as possible while keeping holiday breaks intact.

Research has proven that if students don’t refresh recently learned information over the summer, they tend to lose it completely. This often causes schools to spend two or three months reteaching lost knowledge. As a result, shorter summers may lead to a great retention of information.