Plan your vacations accordingly.
Houston ISD’s appointed Board of Managers unanimously approved a new academic calendar on Thursday that will start the next school year earlier in August and add more days of instruction to students’ schedules.
Under the finalized calendar, HISD students will start class on Aug. 12, more than two weeks earlier than this year’s Aug. 28 start date, and leave for summer on June 4. The new calendar will provide 180 days of instruction, up from 172 this year.
“We know that the school calendar impacts the lives of many families so I am glad that HISD implemented a process this year that allowed for significant input from the community,” HISD Board President Audrey Momanaee said in a statement. “We want to thank those who shared their thoughts and comments with us as they were instrumental in the process. This approved calendar reflects the District’s effort to ensure students have the learning time they need while balancing the needs of our diverse community.”
[…]
The final calendar includes fall and spring holidays on Rosh Hashanah, one of the Jewish High Holidays, and Good Friday, the Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr — which marks the end of Ramadan and was recognized as an HISD holiday for the first time last year — and Chavez Huerta Day, which HISD has recognized as a holiday since 2020, both fall on March 31 in 2025, and students will receive that day off as well.
Students and employees will get a full week off for Thanksgiving in November, and a two week winter break from Dec. 23 to Jan. 3. The weeklong spring break will extend from March 10 to 14. In total, the calendar provides students with 11 holidays and includes nine staff development days throughout the year.
See here for the previous update. Daughter #2 will be a senior this fall, so I only have to deal with this for one year. The rest of you, I say godspeed.
On a side note, I commend you to read this.
Any school district always has a certain amount of angst going on at any time among parents and staff but with what seems to be a record-setting amount at HISD right now, where can parents appeal to?.
In years past, parents, school staff and communities would take their complaints to the administration yes, but equally if not more so to individual members of the elected school board. They’d get on the phone, write letters and emails, stop trustees when they were in the area and share their concerns. Trustees were elected to represent their interests.
It’s different now. Superintendent Miles and his administration are charged with doing all the fixing. The Board of Managers are supposed “to govern” they’ve been told. They set policy and see that the superintendent carries it out. It is a distanced approach that (we hope) keeps them away from direct intervention with vendors but gives the public little additional access to getting their complaints listened to.
Board members remain cyphers in many respects, known mostly for their unanimous, unexplained votes — a frustrating situation for many in the community.
There is a way to get to know them. It involves watching them go through the kind of group exercises that can be tedious to endure but are oh so revealing about what they think now and where they are heading.
If they won’t talk about much of anything at their board meetings, attend a board workshop and get more than a glimpse of what these trustees are about. Listen and don’t interrupt with words of wisdom from the floor. Not because you don’t have anything worthwhile to say. You do.
But you already know what you think. They already know what you think. The point is to learn what and how they think.
Margaret Downing’s been to a few HISD Board meetings in her day, and this was one of the more insightful things I’ve read about the state of the district now. Check it out.