Andy Baker

Longview-area school districts are choosing traditional calendars for 2020-21 among three options aimed at providing flexibility for possible shutdown days amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday, Gov. Gregg Abbott and Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced school can resume in-person in the fall; campuses have been closed since March because of COVID-19.

The Texas Education Agency released three types of calendars school districts can use. The calendar choice is a local decision voted on by school boards.

The three options are a traditional calendar, a COVID-19 response calendar and an intersessional option. All require 75,600 minutes of instruction.

The traditional calendar includes starting on or after the fourth Monday in August, a one-week Thanksgiving break, a two-week winter break, a one-week spring break and the last day of instruction at the end of May.

The COVID-19 response calendar starts on the fourth Monday in August and has built in time throughout the year as “COVID-19 make-up days” to accommodate a break in instruction.

The final option, an intersessional calendar, builds in blocks throughout the school year. During the blocks without class, a targeted group of students would attend school for remediation.

That calendar can start in early August with longer breaks at Thanksgiving, winter and spring and extends to the end of June.

Longview ISD will decide its calendar at a Wednesday board meeting. The district has sent a survey to parents and community members about the calendar options, which will be presented at the meeting.

Pine Tree ISD Superintendent Steve Clugston said the district will keep its traditional calendar without changes.

“It’s like the old bad weather days, you made them up at the end of school if you needed to,” he said. “To me, to change the calendar and put some bigger breaks in, more than likely if we have to shut down it would be January or February during flu season. That’s like using your bad weather days before the bad weather.”

The district is set to start classes Aug. 19.

Hallsville ISD approved its calendar at Monday’s board meeting, Superintendent Jeff Collum said.

“What we decided is backload our COVID-19 shutdown days in the end of May and June. We blocked out May 27 and May 28 and the entire month of June to reserve those days as potential shutdown days,” he said. “We still plan on starting on Aug. 13, and if we need to shut down we would take those days from June and use them as necessary.”

The school year would only extend if there is a closure and the district does not have continued virtual instruction like it did in the spring, Collum said.

“This time, we’re going to have to be a lot more stringent on attendance, instruction and grading,” he said. “We’ve still got to get a little more guidance from TEA on virtual mode. You’d only have to make up days if you cannot serve those kids instructionally. It will be critical during shutdown that parents help us take attendance, and they have got to get the work turned in.”

On Thursday, White Oak ISD approved a traditional calendar with a couple of tweaks in the event of a closure, Superintendent Brian Gray said.

“We added days at the start of the calendar, and we added days at the end of May and end of June on an as-needed basis,” he said. “Really, those COVID-19 days that we’ve added at the end are just precautionary. Our hope is not to use those, but as is, we’re just trying to cover every base we can.”

Spring Hill ISD is keeping its traditional calendar, Superintendent Wayne Guidry said. The district also is looking at making the best use of each minute, versus days.

“Part of our thinking is to see if we can adjust instructional days,” Guidry said. “We’re not wanting to extend the day. I just think we can make better use of the time we’re on campus.”

For example, there will be less time for students to congregate in the halls, he said, not only to add more instructional minutes, but because it will decrease the chances of spreading the virus.

Kilgore ISD also is looking at minutes in the school day as it considers its calendar, Superintendent Andy Baker said in a statement.

He said the district’s site-based decision making committee, which includes the community, parents, teachers and administrators, met recently to discuss possible changes, he said.

Baker said he extending the school day is a possibility.

“Currently, our primary, Chandler, intermediate and middle school campuses operate from 8 a.m. to 3:20 p.m., and our high school operates 10 minutes longer from 7:55 a.m. to 3:25 p.m.,” he said. “By increasing the school day by 10 minutes for our lower campuses — making them the same as our high school campus school day — we will be able to increase our instructional minutes.”

Those extra minutes gives the district some extra “padding” it can use during the year if campuses need to close, he said.

The committee also looked at moving the start date from Aug. 19 to Aug. 12, Baker said. It also considered extending the last day of school from May 27 to June 4.

“These two extra weeks in our calendar would give us flex time within our school year should it be needed for extended time away from school,” he said. “If we need it in the fall and/or spring, since it’s already built into the schedule, we can take up to two weeks of extended time without the need to go deeper into June.”

If the extended time is not needed, the school year will end May 27, he said. Baker will present recommendations to the school board Monday so it can decide on the calendar.