Creating the School Calendar

A few weeks ago, I had a good question from a parent asking how we decide on our major calendar dates each year. We are all particularly impacted by the choices for the first day of school, winter holiday dates, spring break, and the last day of school. In my house, FWCD’s spring break occasionally not aligning with my wife’s FWISD break has an impact. I experience the challenges some of our decisions generate. I wish there were a precise, fully predictable formula, but the reality is that there is some “art” mixed in with the “science” of choosing those dates.

No doubt, one motivation for the question a few weeks ago is, in the 2023-25 span, the excessive days off we have had in Lower School. We have asked a lot of Lower School parents as we addressed our construction circumstances, particularly with unusual days off after already extended Thanksgiving and winter breaks. 

In my earliest days as an educator (1980s), teaching in Oklahoma and then California, the expectation was that a school year consisted of 180 school days. Somehow, we got those 180 days in and still started after Labor Day and ended before Memorial Day. I do not know when or why the shift to starting school before Labor Day began in our state. I do know that, today in Texas, the public schools’ years are counted not in days but in minutes. You might know that Kennedale ISD (along with 113 other districts in Texas) is going to a four-day school week or hybrid schedule next year, which they can do by adding more minutes to each of those four days.

In-service or professional development days are essential for faculty members. We choose not to count them in our official days of school. In our effort to provide more opportunities for faculty to work together without students in the classroom, you will note that in recent years we have added three or four half days and an additional (making for two) day(s) of in-service in January attached to the end of the winter break. 

When proposed dates are taken to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), the starting point is a goal of 170 days of school. The last two years, our Lower School days have dipped below 160. That is not acceptable for the long haul. With construction complete, we get four valuable days back next year. 

Beyond a pure day count, we also have a few guiding principles that affect the School calendar. Upper Schoolers, particularly students and faculty with our more than 20 Advanced Placement courses that have exams in the first two weeks of May, benefit from a head start. Our high schoolers typically miss more days once the year gets going (three Fridays for SPC Championships; some years one or two days for the ISAS Arts Festival). 

Other realities impacting the start date include:

• At least 80% of Upper School students participate in a fall sport. Fall sports, by rule in the Southwestern Preparatory Conference, may begin practices on August 1. Our teams use that date, so Upper School students are typically already around in early August, whereas Lower and Middle Schoolers are often still in camps, on vacation, or the like. 
• Faculty and students benefit from having a shortened first week of the school year. Accordingly, we try to have a Monday orientation with classes starting on a Wednesday. 
• Somewhat arbitrarily, again, I have decided that the earliest first day of school for us will be August 15. 
• For winter break, we try not to be in school after December 20, and we try not to return before January 2. What day of the week December 20 and January 2 fall on will always impact us. 
• For spring break, we try to include March 15 in the break, to break up the second semester into mostly even parts.
• For the end of the year, we graduate on the Friday after May 15, and we aim to have our last class on the Wednesday before Memorial Day.

Given all of the influences on our days on and off, there is no perfect calendar. Our goal as a school is to ensure our students have the knowledge and skills they need each year to be successful. While I do not think we have missed that goal, we have had fewer Lower School days in class the last two years than many of us would like.