(Seguin) — The majority of Seguin ISD families and district stakeholders apparently wanted to keep their winter dates somewhat the same for this upcoming holiday season. The school calendar approved Tuesday by the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees was the result of an online community survey that prompted folks to choose from two different options.
Explaining the difference between both of those calendar options was Sean Hoffmann, chief communications for the Seguin ISD.
“Back in January, the Teacher Communication Council, we worked with them closely and went over several calendar scenarios. They came up with two calendars and Sample 2 which went out to our school community and stakeholders and the sample one calendar, 56 percent of our respondents preferred this calendar. It’s a very traditional calendar. It’s very similar to the calendar we are in right now. The sample two option that was provide for consideration had Christmas starting a little bit later in December going into Wednesday with the break starting on a Thursday in December before Christmas and then having that holiday break go a little bit later that first week in January,” said Hoffmann.
Although approved by the school board, the decision was not unanimous. Voting against the calendar was Trustee Josh Bright. Bright says it wasn’t the dates for the winter break that he questioned, but instead the dates earmarked for intersession. Like the past couple of years, the Seguin ISD again included fall and spring intersession dates, which are designed to provide extra time for the district to work with students who need extra help academically. For the next school year, those dates are Oct. 18-20 and Feb. 1-2. Bright said he would have preferred those dates be folded into some other planned breaks throughout the year.
“My biggest thing is 75 percent of the community has to deal with childcare stuff during intersession. Could we add those days to the summer? Could we do something for intersession so that it’s better for the rest of the community. We’ve targeted 25 percent of the community that needs support and it’s great and we need to give it to them. However, that leaves a lot of other people out there who need to take time off from work or have to juggle things around for their families. The spring one is only like three weeks after we come back from winter break and with the weather inclement problems that we’ve had lately – that’s one of the reasons why I brought that one particularly up but overall, that’s six days for the school year that we could add to either to like a summer break or a winter break and target those 25 percent of those people in a different type of program whether it be like ACE or after school tutoring or some other type of intervention to help them close the gap,” said Bright.
Bright’s issue with the intersession dates, however, reportedly extends beyond the inconvenience that it might have on families. Bright says he questions the overall impact that these additional days of school have with helping students move ahead.
With the information that was given tonight on the intersession program, I didn’t really feel like there was the data to support those intersession dates. I’m saying in my opinion, I don’t see the data supporting intersession,” said Bright.
The intersession days were incorporated to give struggling students additional support. Students are personally invited by educators to participate in the program. All other students get the day off. The school board on Tuesday also learned of a survey that illustrated support for the program by local families. A total of 1,000 people responded to the survey on intersession. Of those 1,000 people, less than 20 reportedly had negative concerns with the districtwide program.
The Seguin Daily News later on this week will have more on this survey as it discusses the positive impact that the intercession calendar is reportedly having on students. That’s all according to Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez.
The approved calendar for the 2023-2024 school year is available for viewing on the Seguin ISD website, seguinisd.net.