Among the noteworthy changes to the adopted schedule is winter break for the 2022-2023 school year, which will take place from Dec. 21 to Jan. 9, according to the calendar. In comparison to the 2021-2022 school year’s calendar, which has winter break slated from Dec. 20 to Jan. 4, the 2022-2023 winter break—including weekends—will be four days longer.
The instructional calendar drafts were reviewed by the District Excellence Committee on Nov. 11 and two draft calendars were reviewed and received input from campus leadership teams, according to the instructional calendar agenda item.
Dr. Lance Groppel, GCISD executive director of instructional leadership, said a community survey was also sent out to help the district and that it received over 1,800 responses. The results showed that 61.4% were in favor of calendar option B—the approved calendar—and 38.6% were in favor of option A, which had a winter break more similar to the 2021-2022 school year.
However, both spring break and Thanksgiving break will be five days, which is the same length as both breaks for 2021-2022, according to the calendar. The 2022-2023 spring break will be from March 13-17 and Thanksgiving break will be from Nov. 21-25.
The first day of school will be on Aug. 17, while high school graduations and the last day of school are on May 25, according to the calendar.
According to the agenda item, state and local guidelines require districts to develop instructional calendars that include 75,600 student instructional minutes, 187 teacher contract days, two bad weather days, at least one work day before the start of each semester, federal holidays and dates for state and local testing.
The district must also not begin classes any earlier than the fourth Monday in August, and the last day must not be before May 15, the agenda item stated.
