The proposed calendar option, which was presented at the Jan. 13 KISD board work study meeting, has a consistent start and end date as the 2025-26 calendar but reduces the number of flex days allowed for staff.
How it happened
District staff administered the instructional calendar survey from Dec. 18-Jan. 9, garnering 16,000 respondents, resulting in a 12% response rate from 134,944 invitations sent, Chief Communications Officer Andrea Grooms said.
In previous years, teachers were allowed a flex day in October and February where they could have their own professional development outside of the workday that counted toward the state’s required minimum of 75,600 minutes of instructional time, Director of Student Affairs Sherri Ashorn said.
However, the Texas Education Agency revisions made to the Student Attendance Accounting Handbook in September stated the allocated 2,100 minutes of professional development could no longer be flex days, Ashorn said.
To account for this, the school board will amend the existing flex days as campus and district professional days, beginning with the upcoming 2025-26 school year. Teachers are permitted one flex day on July 31, Ashorn said.
“Flex days where staff are not present for professional development could not be used for those waiver minutes, so we want to align to [the TEA’s] vision of that,” Ashorn said. “We are reducing the amount of flex days to one flex day. This year they had more. However, we still want to provide that opportunity to them so they'll have that chance before the first day of school starts.”
If there is no bad weather and if the district is in-line with the required instructional minutes, the professional development will become a staff holiday, Ashorn said.
Trustee Rebecca Fox expressed concern with the removal of the flex days but acknowledged there was nothing the district could do as it was a statewide policy.
“Our teachers work incredibly hard, even when they're not getting paid during the summer, getting all of that done,” Fox said.
What’s next
At the Jan. 22 board meeting, KISD trustees will vote on the proposed 2026-27 instructional calendar and the waiver to allow for the 2,100 minutes, or five days, of instructional time for professional development use.
Trustees will also consider an amendment to implement the waiver in the 2025-26 school year.
