CSISD board approves Calendar A for 2023

In a process that began in October, the College Station school district board of trustees unanimously voted in favor of Calendar A for the 2023-24 school year at its meeting Tuesday.

Tiffany Parkerson, executive director of secondary education, presented the two calendar options (A and B) during the Dec. 13 workshop. Based off positive feedback received about students beginning the school year during the week, both calendars had students starting school on Aug. 16. This was done in order for students to set a routine and be rested for their first full week of classes, she said.

Teachers will start professional learning Aug. 8 with six days of staff development.

Both calendars also placed first semester final exams before winter break with students being allotted two and a half weeks for winter break. In Calendar A, winter break runs from Monday, Dec. 18 through Wednesday, Jan. 3.

Staff will return from winter break Jan. 2 to start the second semester the following day, and spring break will align with Texas A&M University.

An additional staff development and student holiday also was included on Monday, Feb. 19, and back-to-back staff development days were added on Oct. 6 and Oct. 9. With 173 student instructional days and 187 teacher workdays, Calendar A placed two compensatory days for eligible staff on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving break.

The College Station school district’s last day of school for students will be Thursday, May 23, and the last day for staff and graduation will be May 24.

The district posted a calendar survey to gather input from the community regarding both options. The survey closed Jan. 6.

After meeting with and discussing the calendar survey data with the District Education Improvement Committee (DEIC) on Jan. 11, Parkerson presented the data to the board at Tuesday’s meeting. Of the 4,044 people who participated in the survey, 696 were students. 2,571 parents, 665 teachers, 339 staff members and 84 community members also provided feedback.

Parkerson noted that if a participant is a member of two of these categories (for example, if a staff member is also a parent), then their vote counts for both. In total, A was the preferred calendar with 2,543 votes opposed to B’s 1,501.

“There was also an option for survey respondents to respond to open-ended questions about each of the calendar surveys,” Parkerson said. “About two-thirds of those were from folks who preferred option A.”

The key trends — gathered from the feedback of the 600-plus respondents — were as follows: those in favor of Calendar A felt strongly about having the final day of school before Memorial Day on May 27. Those in favor of B provided positive feedback about more frequent and teacher-friendly breaks in addition to staff development days.

With an obvious preference for Calendar A, Parkerson gave the board her own and the DEIC’s recommendation in favor of Calendar A.

“Calendar A is the most similar, if you’ll remember, to this school year’s calendar with a few exceptions,” Parkerson said.

With that, the board unanimously approved the option.

“I remember from when I was on DEIC that this is a lot of work,” Board Secretary Geralyn Nolan said at the workshop. “It’s a lot more work than people realize, so good job.”

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