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College Station ISD to seek public feedback on two 2025–26 calendar options
Summary
At a Dec. 17 workshop, district staff presented two draft school calendars for 2025–26 and said a public survey will run over winter break; results will go to the district DEIC committee on Jan. 8 before the board receives a recommendation.
College Station Independent School District officials presented two draft 2025–26 school calendars at a board workshop on Dec. 17 and said they will collect public feedback through a district survey that opens the night of the workshop and closes Jan. 3.
District staff said the two draft calendars share key elements — an Aug. 13 first day of school, an end date before Memorial Day, a built-in Aug. 1 staff workday, Labor Day and a week off for Thanksgiving, two weeks for winter break and 187 required teacher contract days. Staff said both drafts include an instructional-minute cushion equal to about 5.4 extra days to help absorb disruptions.
District staff described an iterative development process that began with staff surveys in September and October and continued with reviews by the district’s DEIC committee and internal cabinet. Staff said almost 400 people responded to the first round of input and about 800 to the second round, and that feedback shaped the two options the district plans to post for public comment.
The two options differ mainly in the fall and spring sequencing. One option (labeled “N N” in the presentation) would give students Halloween off but hold a staff professional-learning day the same week and end the school year with a May 21 last day and May 22 teacher workday; the other option (“O 0”) places a staff-development day on Oct. 10 and a two-day fall break on Oct. 13–14, and lists May 22 as the last day with May 26 as a teacher workday. Staff also noted graduation logistics: the district traditionally schedules graduation at Reed Arena on a Friday and would aim to align the calendar accordingly.
Staff told trustees that one recurring public preference last fall was to avoid Saturday workdays; one draft avoids a Saturday makeup day and instead schedules a Tuesday staff day. The presentation also outlined operational constraints: the district must preserve a construction window so bond-funded projects can be completed, and the Texas Education Agency will not grant automatic waivers for missed minutes in severe events, so districts must bank instructional minutes or extend days if needed. Staff offered one technical option discussed with DEIC: adding five minutes to the school day across the year would generate roughly 2.5 banked days.
Next steps: the district will publish the two options and the survey tonight, keep the survey open over winter break and close it Jan. 3, disaggregate results and present them to DEIC on Jan. 8. DEIC will recommend one calendar to the board at the board’s next meeting, staff said.
"We asked staff early so ideas were fresh," said the presenter. "We asked about August professional development, the September day off, back-to-back PD days — those answers helped us shape options."
