TEA pitches an extended calendar for school year
Longer sessions may give districts needed flexibility
Texas Education Agency officials on Thursday pitched the benefits of starting the 2020-21 school year in early August, ending it later than normal and building in longer breaks that could serve as makeup days if campuses are closed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
In a presentation posted online, TEA officials said the upcoming school year is “likely to be disrupted” by building closures and high levels of student absenteeism, issues that could be alleviated by districts moving closer to a year-around academic calendar.
One sample calendar offered in the presentation shows classes starting in early August and ending in late June, with longerthan-normal breaks around the Thanksgiving, winter and spring break holidays.
TEA officials did not mandate or formally recommend districts change their academic calendar, noting that local school boards ultimately have the authority to set schedules. However, agency leaders said the option, called an “intersessional calendar,” provides more flexibility to address students’ academic needs.
“Given the ongoing disruptions caused by COVID-19, TEA has spoken with numerous educators about the need to adapt our school systems to this new environment,” a TEA official said in an email to the Houston Chronicle.
“One potential option is to adjust the school calendar, to improve our school systems’ collective ability to respond to continued COVID-19 disruptions and address any learning gaps that have emerged over the latter portion of this school year. The presentation lays out options informed by those discussions.”
Campuses across the state have been closed since mid-March and must remain shuttered through the end of the school year to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. While classes continue online in all public schools, educators fear students are falling behind academically and suffering personal trauma without in-person classes.
As a result, education leaders are mapping how to structure the 2020-21 school year to provide more intensive instruction while protecting public health.
Several Houston-area superintendents have hinted at changes to the calen dar and schedule. They include starting the school year earlier in August, providing added instruction to students who fell the farthest behind during the shutdown, and offering a mix of in-person and online classes to limit the number of students on campus at one time.
The region’s largest districts have not yet adopted changes to their calendar ahead of the 2020-21 school year, opting to wait and see how the pandemic develops.
“We try to take a look at everything, but at this point in time, I couldn’t tell you we’re serious about it,” Cy-Fair ISD Board President Bob Covey said about an intersessional calendar. “We’ve already adopted a calendar for next year, which of course is up for possible alterations. There are a whole lot of things I’d call ‘up in the clouds’ at this point.”
State law mandates that schools cannot start their academic year earlier than the fourth Monday in August, though many Houston-area districts begin in mid-August after receiving state exemptions. Those districts can choose to begin even earlier in 2020-21 without seeking state approval.
Other districts, including Houston and Cy-Fair ISDs, have not sought exemptions. However, those districts could begin their 2020-21 school year in early August if they seek a “year-round system” designation, which requires hosting classes in 11 of the 12 months.
Only 21 out of roughly 1,200 Texas public school districts operated “yearround” calendars in 201819, the most recent year with available data published by the state. The such district, 47,600-student Socorro ISD in the El Paso area, is scheduled to begin the 2020-21 school year in early August and end in early June, with two-week breaks in mid-October, the Christmas season and mid-March.
In normal times, the year-round schedule helped reduce summer learning loss and kept students in closer contact with teachers, while also causing minor hiccups around scheduling for sports and other University Interscholastic League events, Socorro Superintendent José Espinoza said. For the upcoming year, the abnormal schedule allows for more flexibility, he said.
“If a student or employee gets COVID-19, we can shut that school down for 14 days of self-quarantine and we would still be able to meet our nine-week grading period,” Espinoza said.
TEA officials also promoted the possibility of offering instruction to the neediest students during longer breaks if makeup days are not needed. However, state law only provides additional funding — at half the typical rate — for students enrolled in grades prekindergarten through fifth grade if districts go beyond certain minutes and days of instruction.
Some of the changes also could require restructuring employee contracts for 2020-21 — many of which are not yet signed — and schedules for extracurricular events. In their presentation, TEA officials said calendar overhauls would require “substantial change management” and “immediate action.”