Round Rock ISD seeks community input on 2018-2019, 2019-2020 academic calendars

Round Rock ISD is seeking staff and community input on the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 academic calendars and providing the opportunity to submit feedback through a survey between Jan.19 and Feb.4.

A team comprised of District and campus administrators, as well as parents, designed the draft calendars in alignment with the most recent calendars. Each draft option is a two-year package with calendars created with similar criteria. The committee presented these to the Board of Trustees at the Jan. 18, 2018, Regular Meeting. The Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees will review the Calendar Committee’s recommendations and the community’s feedback prior to making a decision during the Feb.15, 2018, Regular Meeting.

Before taking the survey, community members can view:

• Option 1
• Option 2
• The drafts are also available in Spanish.

The survey is available in both English and Spanish:

• English survey
• Spanish survey

The calendar committee is not recommending any changes to the length of each school day. The committee’s drafts needed to include 75,600 instructional minutes. Due to a state five-day professional development waiver that accounts for 2,100 instructional minutes, the calendar then needed to reflect an additional 73,500 minutes of instruction. In addition, the committee added in 885 additional instructional minutes to bank at least two days in the case of school closures or delays due to inclement weather.

Since Round Rock ISD is designated as a District of Innovation (DOI), school may start as early as the second Monday in August, while most Texas public schools are required by the state to start following the third Monday in August.

Both Option 1 and Option 2 calendar drafts feature a start date on the second Thursday in August, a full week break at Thanksgiving, and professional development/teacher work days/non-student school days in August before the first day of instruction; in October on and near Columbus Day; in December and January on the days leading up to and after the Winter Break; in February on and near Presidents’ Day; and in May after the last day of school.  While Option 2 draft calendars have two professional development days and one teacher work day flanking the Winter Break, the Option 1 draft has one of those professional development days moved to the day following Spring Break. Both Option 1 and Option 2 calendar drafts have the last instructional day occurring before Memorial Day.