Denton ISD approved the 2024-25 school calendar, and while it might seem like staff and teachers head back to the classroom early — July 31 — the upcoming school year isn't too different than the current one. The school board approved the calendar unanimously this week.
"One of the biggest things that you'll see, and that got lots of feedback already, is a July 31st start for staff," said Lindsay Henderson Lujan, the principal at Alexander Elementary School and a member of the team that devised the calendar.
Lujan spoke to district leaders in November, when the calendar committee presented the latest draft to school board members.
"This school year is a leap year, and the upcoming year is a little odd with where holidays land. It's also an election year," Lujan said. "It's a presidential election year, and that's something the committee was asked to take into consideration."
Lujan said that typically, the first staff day would be on Aug. 1 — just one day later.
"July sounds hard for many," she said.
District leadership put a committee together to create the calendar, and part of the committee's work was to represent stakeholders. The stakeholders represent the Educational Improvement Committee, the superintendent's cabinet, Parent Teacher Association groups on campuses, administrators and the Teacher Communications Committee.
When creating the district's calendar for the school year, administrators have to include certain features by law. Staff members have to work 187 days, which is stipulated in their contracts. Students have to spend 180 days in class for a minimum of 75,600 instructional minutes. Texas school districts also have to embed two inclement weather days, which are expected to fall during the week.
Denton ISD's calendar-building committee has its own goals for the 2024-25 school year: half-days that allow teachers to take part in professional development through content-area teams — math teachers work together, English teachers work together and the like — to survey student performance; curriculum concerns and needs; and to discuss and consider their own performance and improvement.
Also, for next year's calendar, the committee wanted the fall semester to end before winter break and spring semester to end before Memorial Day. Finally, the committee wanted to provide one staff holiday a month.
For the 2024-25, teachers will start the year with five professional learning days before students enter the buildings, which Lujan said include the typical classroom organization and curriculum preparation.
"Our first half-day happens in August. That was much needed. Being able to come together to hear from principals and teachers that they really appreciate that additional time to plan collaboratively, not just on their campus, but throughout the district as well," Lujan said.
The district heard from parents that the half-days for professional development caused scheduling whiplash for families. Originally, the district had the professional learning days on Wednesdays in hopes of reducing absenteeism. The district opted to move the half-days to Friday for the current school year after parents and guardians reported that the midweek plan created hardships for working families. The 2024-25 calendar retained the half-days on Fridays for the most part.
So how does the approved calendar shake out?
- School starts on Aug. 7, 2024.
- Inclement weather days are slated for April 18 and 21, 2025.
- Students will have half-days during 2024 on Aug. 30, Sept. 20, Oct. 11, Nov. 1 and Dec. 19-20.
- Students will have half-days during 2025 on Jan. 17, Feb. 14, March 7, April 11 and May 21-23.
- Holidays are spread out through the year, including Sept. 2 and Oct. 14, 2024, and Jan. 20 and Feb. 17, 2025. Thanksgiving break is Nov. 25-29, 2024. Winter break will be Dec. 23, 2024, through Jan. 1-3, 2025, and spring break is March 10-14, 2025.
- The last day of school is May 23, 2025.