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Calendar committee presents three 2025-26 options and explains instructional-focus (stockpile) days
Summary
The calendar committee recommended a preferred calendar option (preference one), explained the committee makeup and the mechanics of instructional-focus (stockpile) days that allow later student start dates while preserving required instructional minutes.
Dr. Jeff Young, supervisor of professional growth, presented the calendar committee's recommendations and the rationale behind instructional-focus days (also called stockpile days).
"Congratulations — you're now part of making a decision that some people are going to like and some people are not," Dr. Young told the board as he outlined the committee process, which included teachers, parents, principals, classified staff and students. He said the committee produced three calendar preferences and that preference one received about 75% support from the committee.
Dr. Young explained the statutory constraints the committee considered: Tennessee requires 190 days in the calendar structure that is often represented as 180 student days plus professional and discretionary days. The district uses built-up minutes to create stockpile days that can be designated for professional development; properly authorized, those stockpile days let the district start student instruction later in August without losing annual required time.
He described trade-offs across the proposals: how stockpile (instructional-focus) days are scheduled, which of the five instructional-focus days must be attended on a specific date vs. which can be flexed, effects on quarter one/quarter two day counts for semester-bound high school courses, and operational impacts such as registration nights and band/athletics scheduling. The committee also recommended that many instructional-focus days be held at the building level rather than as a single districtwide day to increase relevance for teachers.
Board members raised practical concerns about giving teachers time in classrooms before registration nights and about stacking district-drive training days with registration; staff said principals have discretion to use administrative (discretionary) days to give teachers classroom prep time and that some flexibility can be built into drive-day schedules.
The board will be asked to indicate a preference at the Oct. 15 meeting and the selected option will be submitted to the Tennessee Department of Education for any required approvals related to instructional-focus days.
