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Hendry County Schools add October break, tweak start times and stagger bus routes to address staff burnout
Summary
District leaders said the updated 2025–26 calendar adds a fall break, preserves required instructional minutes, staggers elementary start times and builds nearly 10 hurricane make-up days into the schedule to reduce burnout and improve attendance.
Hendry County Schools presented an updated 2025–26 calendar at a LaBelle town hall that adds a one-week October fall break, increases front-loaded professional learning days and adjusts some school start and stop times to stagger bus routes and reduce staff burnout.
District staff said the calendar change preserves the district’s required instructional minutes while giving staff and families more predictable breaks. Officials said the change was developed with a calendar committee that included district leadership and the teachers union (HCEA) and that staff requested a scheduled break at the end of each nine-week period.
“Our staff really was the one who said, we believe that at the end of every 9 weeks having a break would give our students and our staff the ability to say, okay,” a district leader said while explaining the rationale. Meeting presenters also cited teacher burnout and scheduling conflicts as reasons to add predictable breaks so families can plan vacations and reduce ad-hoc absences.
The calendar also preserves almost 10 built-in “hurricane makeup days,” staff said, and maintains state-required total student seat time. Officials said the district adjusted several LaBelle-area start and stop minutes only slightly, while making larger staggered changes on the Clewiston (Clueson) side of the district to space bus arrivals in five-minute increments and allow some schools to add an extended day for early learning centers.
Why it matters: Officials said predictable breaks and professional learning days should increase teacher retention, improve classroom instruction and reduce attendance-related instructional loss. The district said it will monitor academic and attendance data to determine whether the calendar produces the intended effects.
Discussion and oversight: Staff said the calendar committee reviewed multiple options, including four-day weeks and balanced calendars, and chose a model intended to meet local needs without reducing classroom minutes. District leaders said they will evaluate the calendar data each year and adjust the model as needed.
Ending: Officials asked attendees to complete the town-hall survey and promised to review data on academics and attendance to determine whether to keep, tweak or abandon the new calendar approach.
