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Liberty Hill ISD weighs 'innovative' 2025–26 calendar, including potential 4‑day student week
Summary
District staff presented three calendar options and a B‑plus variant that would condense staff development time and could produce a student 4‑day week; trustees asked about instructional minutes, childcare, extracurricular impacts and MLK Day. Board directed staff to gather more input before a February vote.
Chris Motel, calendar presenter for Liberty Hill ISD, outlined three proposed 2025–26 academic calendars and a B‑plus variant, saying the options range from a traditional 168‑day model to a true 4‑day student week that would reduce student days to about 160 and require minor daily minute adjustments to meet the state minimum of 75,600 instructional minutes.
"Calendar B is only three student days different from Calendar A," Motel said, describing Calendar B as an "innovative" format that consolidates staff development days in the middle of semesters. He told trustees the district could meet state minute requirements by adding a modest number of minutes per day (he cited adding 5 minutes as one example) and that any change would require detailed work with teaching and learning staff on pacing and professional development scheduling.
The presentation highlighted potential tradeoffs: reduced substitute costs and recruitment gains cited by peer districts that adopted condensed schedules, but also concerns about childcare logistics, the convenience of Friday staff days for working parents, and the need to preserve meaningful professional learning time.
Trustees pressed on operational and equity implications. Trustee Neighbors said he favored exploring a true 4‑day model (calendar C) but asked staff to explore consequences for August/May start and end dates. Trustee Hargrove and others raised the community response to removing Martin Luther King Jr. Day in a prior year and said maintaining that holiday carries historical and parental expectations. Trustee Major emphasized predictability for parents and asked that any tipping point in added minutes for younger children be identified.
Board members also asked about specific impacts at the high school level, where extended days could push dismissal to 4:20–4:45 p.m., potentially affecting after‑school athletics and extracurriculars; staff said they would examine bell schedules, transportation and hourly employees' work weeks with HR and finance should the board prefer the calendar C direction.
Motel said the district will continue collecting feedback (including DEIC input) and return to the board with more detail and options for approval in February. "We'll sit down with our teaching and learning department and our principals and outline the year," he said. "Then everyone would know what those days would look like."
What happens next: Staff will collect additional input from principals, teachers and parents, refine childcare and transportation plans, model instructional minutes and present a recommended calendar for board consideration in February.
