Updated May 25 at 11:15 a.m.
In order to comply with a state law that calls for an instructional school year to be measured by minutes instead of days, Lake Travis ISD Board of Trustees changed the daily start and end times for the district's elementary schools and high school for the 2016-17 school year during its April 19 meeting.
LTHS students will begin school at 8:40 a.m. and end at 3:50 p.m. at the start of the new school year, a change from the current schedule of 8:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m.
A draft of the new bell schedule can be found in the agenda items of the April 19 meeting.
The six elementary schools will begin at 7:40 a.m. and dismiss at 2:50 p.m, a change from their current start time of 7:45 a.m. and end time of 2:45 p.m.
The start and end times for the two middle schools will not change.
House Bill 2610, which was passed Feb. 9, changes the language requiring 180 days of instruction in the Texas Education Code, or TEC, to requiring 75,600 minutes.
The time change also cuts the high school's CAVtime—which is used for study hall, teacher office hours and club meetups—from 5 days a week to 2 days a week. This schedule change builds an extra 10 minutes into instructional time.
Additionally, time between high school classes will be reduced from 8 minutes to 7 minutes and lunch will be reduced from 35 minutes to 30 minutes.
LTHS Interim Principal Emmett Aubry said he and Wendy Sturdevant, the associate principal for curriculum and instruction, met with every department in LTHS and did not receive any concerns from staff members.
Sturdevant said the feedback she received from students and staff indicate students “aren’t having any trouble getting through our lunch lines,” which justified the shortened lunch period.
Aubry said students have usually received and eaten their lunch in about 15 minutes.
“We really didn’t think we were shorting anybody, and we are getting more instructional minutes, and I think teachers, for one, are appreciative of that,” he said.
The new instructional day also gives the school an optional 4 days to close the school for inclement weather.
“This was hard to do, and I applaud the high school administration,” LTISD Superintendent Brad Lancaster said.
Correction: This article has been updated to show that the elementary school times are also changing.
