Spring ISD students will get two extra holidays before the 2021-22 school year ends, trustees ruled on Feb. 8, while teachers will be required to work one of the days.
In a 5-2 vote on the first motion, with trustees Deborah Jensen and Carmen Correa opposed, the trustees elected to adjust the district’s current calendar so that students will not have classes on Monday, Feb. 14 or Friday, April 18.
SISD classes were canceled Sept. 14 due to Hurricane Nicholas and again on Feb. 4 due to freezing weather conditions. In spite of these closures, the district will still meet the required amount of instructional minutes for the 2021-22 school year, SISD General Counsel Jeremy Binkley said.
“In building the current school year [calendar], the district did build in additional instructional minutes beyond the required minimum,” Binkley said.
In a second vote, trustees decided campus-based teachers and staff will report to work Feb. 14, while they will have April 18 off along with students. District administrators will be working both days, according to a Feb. 8 press release from SISD.
The added work day would give educators an extra day to catch up on their lesson plans or other work without having to teach students, board President Justine Durant said.
“This year, our school staff, specifically our teachers, have not had any professional development days built in, as we've done in years past this year,” Superintendent Lupita Hinojosa said Feb. 8. “We are working straight through 180 days.”
Even though the day is considered a work day, trustees want to make sure it is not filled with meetings so that teachers have time to sit in their classrooms and catch up on their lesson plans, Durant said.
“We want to make sure it's a protected day,” Durant said.
Board Assistant Secretary Rhonda Newhouse opposed the vote for the second motion, which passed 6-1. Newhouse said that when she worked as a teacher, she appreciated days to work without students present.
“It [was] not a stressful day, it [was] a relaxing day for me,” Newhouse said. “And I always appreciated that. I also appreciated the days that we had off, too ... because at that time, we were not having all of the holidays that we have now."
