The Plano ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved the new calendar during its Dec. 8 meeting, though trustee Jeri Chambers was absent from the meeting. The new calendar will include 84 instructional days during the first semester and 91 during the second. School starts Aug. 11, 2021, and wraps up on Friday, May 27, 2022.
"[There are] several days where families can have a four-day weekend if they want to travel to an amusement park or to visit a college," board member Nancy Humphrey said of the calendar. "The number of [instructional] days in the second semester are greater [than the first semester], but that also accounts for all the testing that takes place."
The district’s winter break next year will run from Dec. 20-Jan. 3, followed by a staff work day on Jan. 4 and students returning on Jan. 5, 2022. PISD’s 2022 spring break will be March 7-14, with students returning to classes on a Tuesday. Neighboring districts, Collin College and the University of North Texas have scheduled spring break for March 7-11, 2021.
In putting together the calendar, district staff considered the 75,600 instructional minutes required by the state, alignment with Collin College dual credit courses, placement and duration of breaks, testing calendars, student activities and graduation, Executive Director of Communications Lesley Range-Stanton has said previously. A committee made up of school staff, district executives and members of student and faculty advisory councils gave feedback on the calendar drafts presented to the board in November and the final calendar presented Dec. 8.
"This [calendar] features some of the adjustments that you requested and talked about during that last meeting," Range-Stanton said.
PISD teachers will begin staff development work days on Aug. 4, 2021, and will have five additional staff development days during the school year that will be student holidays. The district also listed March 14 and April 18—both of which are scheduled holidays for students and teachers—as inclement weather days in case they are needed for instruction.
