Eanes ISD board of trustees approved the academic calendar for the 2018-19 school year at its Nov. 28 meeting, choosing one of two options presented by district staff. On the approved calendar, the first day of school will be Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018, and students will be released for the summer Thursday, May 30, 2019. The final three days of the school year will take place after Memorial Day. Students will receive a full week off for Thanksgiving from Nov. 19-23, 2018. The first day of winter break will be Dec. 24, 2018 and school will resume Jan. 8, 2019 Calendar adjustments were required for the district to comply with bad-weather makeup days and to reach amount of instructional hours set by the state at each grade level. If needed, makeup days will be on May 31 and June 3 in 2019. In the alternative calendar proposal, the school year began Monday, Aug. 20, 2018 and ended Thursday, May 23, 2019 with makeup days on May 24 and 28 in 2019. The Thanksgiving holiday was only three days in the alternative proposal. Associate Superintendent Jeff Arnett said the district’s leadership team looked at numerous possibilities, including changing school start and end times, but ultimately decided to maintain current school hours. In an online survey of 2,219 parents, nearly 60 percent preferred the option selected by the school board, Arnett said. About 68 percent of district staff that participated in the survey preferred the approved option. Trustee Julia Webber voted against the action and preferred the second option, in part, because of a concern about having classed after Memorial Day.