The Spring ISD board of trustees approved the 2018-19 academic calendar and a partnership with a college readiness program among other business at its regular meeting Feb. 13. The academic calendar was placed before the public for community input for the past week on the district website. Two options were provided with different dates for the first day of school, winter break and spring holidays. The board adopted Option B, which received more than 70 percent of the votes cast. Option B includes a start date of Aug. 15, a winter break from Dec. 19 to Jan. 8 and holidays on April 19 and 22. The last day of school will be May 30. The board considered whether to change its process of selecting names for new schools, since the $330 million bond referendum passed in 2016 will create several new schools that must be named. Schools have typically been named after individuals in the community, but the board also discussed naming future buildings after their functions or after the community in which they are located. “I would hate to limit ourselves to naming it just after a community,” board President Jana Gonzales said. A vote was not taken, but the consensus among board members was to retain the current board naming conventions—including names of people, functions and communities—and continue the discussion in the board’s governance subcommittee. The board also approved a memorandum of understanding between SISD and EMERGE Fellowship, a nonprofit organization that prepares students from underserved communities for competitive colleges. The program will include biweekly programming to prepare students for standardized testing, workshops and summer programs such as university tours. The district also saw performances from students from Beneke and Booker elementary schools and from Wunsche Senior High School in honor of National Black History Month in February.