In a new draft calendar proposal for the 2016-17 school year, Frisco ISD students would be in school fewer days in exchange for more class minutes.

“Instruction is increasing even though the total number of teaching days is decreasing,” FISD Superintendent Jeremy Lyon said at a Dec. 14 school board meeting.

The board of trustees will make a decision on the proposed calendar either at the January or February board meeting.

Under a new state law, districts are required to have a minimum of 75,600 minutes of instruction—including passing periods and recess—rather than a required number of school days.

Before the new law, which was passed last June, FISD received a waiver from the state to allow the district to use three of its school days for additional staff development days. Under the 2015-16 school year calendar students are attending school for 177 days, and staff has 10 development days.

In the proposed 2016-17 calendar, the district would reduce the number of school days to 174 while extending the school day for elementary and high schools.

The district is considering adding 10 minutes to the elementary school day and five minutes to the high school day to meet the new state requirement. The middle school day would remain the same.

“This is giving us more flexibility in our calendar, giving our students and staff additional days off,” board President Anne McCausland said. “We’re also able to add more staff development days.”

In the proposed plan, three more staff development days have been added to the calendar.

“It’s extremely important to allow time away from the classroom for our staff to catch up and enhance their education,” McCausland said.