Fort Bend ISD is seeking public comment until 5 p.m. Dec. 15 via online survey for two calendar options for the 2018-19 school year.

The results of the survey will be shared with the district’s calendar committee before a final recommendation is presented to the board of trustees, according to a release from the district.

FBISD’s Local Innovation Plan, which was adopted by the board in March, provides flexibility to the start and end dates of instruction. The calendars posted for review are a product of a task force of district and campus representatives, who used the Local Innovation Plan to guide their work, district officials said.

The task force used the flexibility provided by the Local Innovation Plan to draft calendar options that provide more time for staff development and planning for teachers. The drafts allow for professional development days with embedded planning to be distributed throughout the school year, rather than only grouped together at the beginning or end of the school year.

Both calendar options also include traditional FBISD holidays, such as a weeklong Thanksgiving break and the Fort Bend County Fair Day. Spring Break is listed as March 11-15 in both plans.

Teachers will have 187 contract days in both calendar options with two district professional development days and four campus professional development days prior to the start of the school year.

Instead of several early release days, the calendars both factor in at least one full day of professional learning or holiday each month. Students will have 75,600 operational minutes, as required by the Texas Education Agency, as well as 840 additional instructional minutes factored in for inclement weather days.

In addition to the surplus minutes that are equivalent to two bad-weather days, the two calendar options also include minutes that can absorb any additional emergency closures or changes.

View the calendar options here.

Results of the survey will be reviewed by the district’s calendar committee and a final recommendation of the 2018-19 calendar will be presented to the board of trustees in January of 2018.