College Station ISD offers two draft calendars and opens community survey on fall break
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Summary
District staff presented two draft 2026–27 calendars — one with a full October fall break and one without — and opened a community survey (posted Dec. 17) that closes Jan. 2. Trustees heard differences in total days and professional development/work‑day counts and will review DEIC recommendations in January.
Mister Mann, a district staff presenter, told trustees the calendar process started in early fall and centers on stakeholder feedback gathered by the district’s DEIC and a series of targeted surveys for staff, parents and students. "We start this in the early fall, because we like to get the feedback from folks," he said, describing month‑by‑month survey questions and panels used to shape two draft calendars.
The most concrete differences between the drafts are timing and a small difference in the student and staff day counts. "The no fall break calendar has 169, and the fall break calendar has 170," Mann said. He summarized other tradeoffs: teacher workdays on the no‑fall‑break draft total 10 versus 8 on the fall‑break draft; professional‑development days are 8 versus 9, respectively. Both drafts include two bad‑weather makeup days in May and roughly three days of built‑in cushion.
Why it matters: the calendar determines start and return dates for staff, the timing of PD days, and how construction schedules (approved by voters) affect campus readiness. Mann said the district attempts to align with Texas A&M’s calendar where possible and that any late change to A&M’s spring break would prompt an amendment.
Trustees discussed operational impacts. Several members asked whether moving the start date to help construction would cost the district staff days they value; Mann said staff would return earlier under the fall‑break draft and that maintenance and construction crews would coordinate around those two pre‑start workdays. The board also debated naming conventions to avoid implying preference for either draft and the importance of clear survey framing.
Next steps: the district posted the two drafts and an explanatory "cheat sheet" and will open the public survey, which Mann said will close Jan. 2 at 11:59 p.m. Responses will be reviewed by DEIC in January and the committee will make a recommendation to the full board at the district’s January regular meeting.