The New Braunfels ISD board of trustees approved the district’s academic calendar for the 2026-27 school year Jan. 12.
What happened
The board approved the second of three proposed calendars, which received the highest positive feedback according to board documents.
The 2026-27 calendar was intentionally aligned with the 2025-26 calendar, which received significant community support during the previous year’s feedback process, said Chief of School Matthew DeLoach at the board’s Nov. 10 meeting, where the proposed calendars were initially presented.
NBISD teachers will return to work Aug. 3. School will begin Aug. 17 and end May 21. Graduations will be held May 23, according to the district website.
The district will observe the following student and staff holidays:
- Sept. 7: Labor Day
- Sept. 25 (pending): Comal County Fair Day
- Oct. 12: Columbus Day
- Nov. 23-27: Thanksgiving break
- Dec. 21-Jan. 1, 2027: Winter break
- Jan. 18, 2027: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
- Feb. 15, 2027: Presidents Day
- March 8-12, 2027: Spring break
- April 16, 2027: Good Friday
The options
Each year, the Districtwide Education Improvement Council, or DEIC, works alongside district administration to develop an academic calendar recommendation for the board. The process typically begins in October or November, when draft calendars are first presented to the committee, according to board documents.
Draft calendars were shared with the DEIC on Nov. 3, after which members gathered feedback from campuses and the community through surveys distributed by principals and posted on the district’s website, DeLoach said during the Nov. 10 meeting. All three options shared the same student start date of Aug. 17 and an end date of May 21, with graduation scheduled for May 22 at Texas State University.
The calendar structure was dictated by instructional minute requirements, with two bad-weather makeup days built into the schedule. Because the graduation date is fixed, adding additional holidays or teacher workdays would require moving the school start date earlier, DeLoach said.
The primary difference between the drafts was the inclusion of exchange days in Drafts B and C. These exchange days were designed to reduce off-contract time by allowing teachers to earn a full day of credit for extended after-school parent meetings held within designated windows in October and March. In exchange, teachers would be released earlier at the end of the school year, according to board documents.
Digging deeper
Several priorities were outlined in the meeting, guiding the calendars’ development. These included ensuring time for the two in-person parent-teacher conferences required under Senate Bill 12. This would reduce the amount of instructional time missed by teachers attending the mandatory 10-day Reading or Math Academies and minimize reliance on off-contract time for teachers to meet the state-required 187-day contract, according to board documents.
Under state requirements, school boards must approve a calendar that includes at least 75,600 instructional minutes and allows for bad weather makeup days through scheduled calendar days or excess instructional minutes. DeLoach said the district also operates under a waiver allowing four professional learning days to count toward the instructional minute requirement.
What they’re saying
Feedback collected from campuses and the community was combined and reviewed before the final recommendation was made. Draft B of the proposed calendars received the most positive feedback, leading to district staff’s recommendation to approve, according to board documents.
Draft B received 158 of the total 257 votes, while drafts A and C received 66 and 33 votes, respectively.
Something to note
Administrators also noted efforts to align major breaks with surrounding educational institutions—such as spring break, Thanksgiving and winter break—when possible. However, differences in instructional day length and local holidays make full alignment challenging, DeLoach said.
For more information about the new academic calendar, go to www.nbisd.org/calendar.
