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College Station ISD board approves 10-minute school day extension to align high-school schedules
Summary
On May 20 the College Station ISD Board of Trustees voted 6–1 to add 10 minutes to the 2025–26 school day so both comprehensive high schools can share a new CTE schedule; the change adds roughly 3.97 instructional days and designates four teacher planning/work days, drawing objections from some trustees, teachers and parents.
College Station Independent School District trustees voted 6–1 on May 20 to approve an adjustment to the 2025–26 school calendar that adds 10 minutes to the district’s school day to align bell schedules at both comprehensive high schools.
District staff said the change is intended to let students and staff fully use a planned career-and-technical-education (CTE) facility and to simplify shared staffing and bus routing. "There is a need to identify 10 minutes to the school day for the coming school year," District staff member Mr. Mann told the board during the item’s presentation.
The addition of 10 minutes per day increases the district's instructional minutes by 1,750 across the year, which the administration calculated as roughly 3.97 additional days; the administration proposed designating four specific dates as teacher planning/work days (Aug. 29, Nov. 20, March 6 and April 2) and said it would seek a TEA professional-development waiver to count some of the minutes toward required time. "We have to have a minimum of 75,600 minutes of instruction per year," Mann said while explaining the calculation and the waiver option.
Why it matters: the change is aimed at making the CTE facility usable by both high schools and making it easier to share specialized staff, but it also creates trade‑offs for younger students and teachers. Several public speakers, including classroom teacher Heidi Duverna, urged the board to delay or alter the plan, citing teacher workload and special‑education demands. "My roster this year included 106 students, 23 of whom had specialized learning plans ... that resulted in 171 daily accommodations that I was supposed to make and document accordingly," Duverna said during public comment.
Board debate mixed support for the student‑centered rationale with concerns about process and impact. Trustee Miss Iggy said she worried the change was rushed and could hurt younger students, arguing "we should consider waiting a year to do this because this is not needed, until the 2026 school year for the new CTE center." Trustee Dr. Payne described the measure as "a student driven decision," saying the schedule alignment was needed so students could access new CTE opportunities.
Administration said the elementary timing was chosen so the district’s minimum minute calculation would not be set by a single school level; without the elementary adjustment the district would have needed to add minutes only at higher levels and would not have been able to designate the four planning/work days. The administration also emphasized that the total contracted workdays for teachers would not change.
The board approved the calendar amendment by a 6–1 vote. Trustees said the change can be reviewed after a year; supporters said the adjustment will be evaluated and fine‑tuned in subsequent years.
The approved calendar change takes effect with the 2025–26 school year and will be implemented while the district continues planning for its CTE facility and related bell‑schedule changes.
