School will now end May 21 at LISD schools after the board of trustees approved these changes to the 2020-21 academic calendar at their March 1 work session. Trustees also pushed the end date for the third nine-week period later to March 12.
“If we really believe that we’re going to make up for all learning [losses] in four days at the end of the school year, we’re kidding ourselves,” Superintendent Kevin Rogers told trustees. “We have to have staff that aren’t burned out.”
The earlier start date will enable district staff to bring what Rogers described as a challenging year to a close and shift their focus toward summer programs, he said.
Heading into this school year, the district had extended its school days by 25 minutes each in an effort to bank extra time in the event the district had to close. This extra time was used instead to move up the end date of the school year.
The district’s decision was made in light of the fact that it may not have to make up instructional days lost due to February's winter storms that forced school closures in February. The district can seek a waiver for instructional days lost because of inclement weather.
Rogers told trustees that his decision to ask for a shortened school year was a request born from a set of circumstances unlike any he had ever seen before.
“There would never be another time in my career that I would ever think of making this request,” Rogers said. “I’m hoping we will never face anything like this [again].”
