HOUSTON – Oct. 8, 2020 – The Spring ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved a revised 2020-21 Instructional Calendar on Thursday that reduces the intersession breaks and ends the school year earlier, on June 4.
The board approved Option 1, the calendar recommended by the district’s Advisory Committee on Education as well as the majority of staff, parents and students who responded to the district’s calendar survey.
“The overwhelming majority of our stakeholders indicated that they preferred Option 1,” said Executive Chief of District Operations Mark Miranda. ”This option reduces the intersession breaks and gives us a more traditional calendar.”
In addition, all students will be learning on the same calendar, instead of having seniors on a different schedule. Under the approved calendar, students and teachers will have a short intersession break on Friday, Oct. 30 and Monday, Nov. 2. In addition, Tuesday, Nov. 3, which is Election Day, is a holiday for everyone except those on a 226-day contract and some other exceptions.
“Since many of our campuses will be used as polling places, we felt it was in the best interest of safety to close on Election Day to help reduce traffic and congestion as people turn out to vote,” Miranda said.
The decision to return to a more traditional calendar follows new guidance from the Texas Education Agency issued over the summer that more easily lets districts transition from in-person to remote learning if needed for COVID-19 or other reasons. For example, in September, rather than close district operations for Tropical Storm Beta, Spring ISD asked that all students and staff learn and work remotely.
“This flexibility to pivot as needed makes the intersession breaks less critical,” Miranda said. “Rather than having to shut down for COVID-19 or any other reason, we now have the systems in place to effectively teach and work virtually if necessary.”
Other key dates in the approved calendar are:
- Thanksgiving Break from Nov. 23 – Nov. 27
- Winter Break from Dec. 21 – Jan. 4
- Spring Break from March 15 – March 19
- Spring Holiday on April 2
The calendar is available at www.springisd.org/calendar.