The Magnolia ISD board of trustees approved the 2024-25 school calendar during a board meeting Feb. 12.

What you need to know

The approved calendar includes 172 days of instruction, 13 professional development days and 187 teacher days.

Important dates in the 2024-25 academic year include:

• Aug. 8: First day of school
• Sept. 2: Holiday
• Sept. 16: Professional development day
• Oct. 7-11: Fall break
• Nov. 4-5: Professional development days
• Nov. 25-29: Thanksgiving break
• Dec. 23-Jan. 3, 2025: Christmas break
• Jan. 6-7, 2025: Professional development days
• Jan. 20, 2025: Holiday
• Feb. 17-18, 2025: Professional development days
• March 10-14, 2025: Spring break
• April 18, 2025: Holiday
• May 23, 2025: Last day of school

Dec. 20 and May 23, 2025, are early release days.

In other news

After approving the calendar, the MISD board also accepted a resolution to allow the district to employ or use volunteer chaplains as needed.

During the 88th Texas legislative session, Senate Bill 763 was passed requiring school boards to vote before March 1 on whether a district will or will not adopt a policy allowing the chaplains to either volunteer or be hired by the district.

A chaplain, according to Learn.org, is a person who leads nondenominational religious services and provides spiritual support to those who are unable to attend organized religious services. A chaplain can work in a hospital, prison or school.

Some details

The board unanimously approved the use of chaplains on campuses whether as volunteers or employees. The MISD resolution reads that the district:

• Adopts board policy GKG, which places into policy procedures already followed by the district relating to volunteers
• Affirms that MISD has never had a policy or practice prohibiting a chaplain to serve as a volunteer or to provide volunteer support, services and programs for students
• Permits the district to employ or accept as a volunteer an appropriately certified chaplain to provide support, services and programs for students if deemed necessary by administration

"This originally started with the idea that there are some school districts that may not be able to find enough certified counselors to meet the needs of kids in the areas of mental health, trauma response and counseling services," Deputy Superintendent Jason Bullock said. "We don't have that problem in Magnolia ISD."

What they are saying

Bullock said all the counseling positions across MISD are currently filled by certified counselors.

"This administration does not see a need to step off into hiring chaplains to work in the district at this point, but what this [resolution] would do is give us the ability to do that should that need arise," he said.

Superintendent Todd Stephens said if a chaplain is employed or used to serve in MISD, the district will define what that role looks like and share any information with parents ahead of time.

"We aren't marching out and hiring chaplains at this point to do some services before we even define what that is," he said. "That would be something we would define as a board and administration before we use them, but we certainly have a path open to do that if we need to."