Lovejoy ISD on Wednesday took its first step toward seeking designation as a District of Innovation, an effort to secure exemptions to state requirements regarding start dates and teacher certification before state lawmakers have a chance to restrict those exemptions in the upcoming legislative session.

The Board of Trustees approved a resolution at its monthly meeting calling for a public hearing to determine whether the district should develop a local innovation plan, which would exempt the district from certain requirements under the Texas Education Code. After the public hearing, the board would appoint a committee to develop the plan.

Administration officials would like to use the innovation plan to produce flexibility in school start dates and teacher certification, Superintendent Ted Moore told the board on Wednesday, Oct. 19.

Moore added he hopes to achieve the District of Innovation designation before the Texas Legislature meets next year. The Legislature, he said, could move to limit the exemptions available to districts of innovation. But districts who have already achieved the designation before such a change would go into effect might maintain some of those benefits, he said.

"We might as well go ahead and take advantage of the things we're still interested in while the buffet is full," Moore said.

The Texas Education Agency allows districts of innovation to forgo certain requirements regulating school start dates, class-size ratios, discipline policies, teacher certification and contract provisions, and others. Districts must meet the state's accountability standards to implement an innovation plan.

"The Texas Education Agency does not have the authority to approve a district's innovation plan," the Texas Education Agency website reads. "However, the agency retains the authority to engage in investigative, intervention and enforcement activities if the district is not in compliance with legal requirements for which an exemption cannot be claimed."

Moore said the ability to change the school start date would give the district more flexibility with vacation days, and also allow for the hiring of teachers with industry experience who have not gone through the state's full teacher certification process.

The board would likely consider an innovation plan proposal at its December meeting, Moore said.