Floresville ISD approves the hybrid calendar with four -day school weeks

Throughout the weekends will soon be the standard for thousands of students and employees of Floresville in Floresville.

At its meeting on March 3, the Floresville ISD board unanimously approved a new hybrid calendar, which comprises four-day school weeks for the school year 2025-2026. It is followed by over 100 school districts in Texas, which have taken the controversial step to improve the recruitment and binding of teachers.

“One of the questions that have been raised quite frequently is:“ Why should we do that? '' Rhonda Wade, the deputy superintendent for teaching and learning the district, said at an earlier board meeting. “The main reason is that we try to offer our students the best teachers.”

The hybrid calendar comprises 470 daily lessons in all grades, said spokesman Blanca Martinez. At the beginning of each semester, the Wilson County district will stick to a normal five -day school plan during the first and third classification period before moving to a four -day schedule during the second and fourth evaluation period.

The calendar reduces the number of school days from 169 to 164 and the days of the teachers from 187 to 178. The courses will not give up more on Fridays than the district stated that the replacement teaching inquiries are increased by 5%. Extremeine and athletics take place as usual.

Read too: Floresville ISD debates random drug tests for extra -curricular universities for medium -sized, high school

The administrators previously estimated that the hybrid calendar would save 1% of the annual budget of the district or $ 380,000.

In a Facebook post, Floresville ISD said that due to restrictions that are available through the contract for food services, it could only shorten five student days. According to Martinez, childcare is offered for pupils before the K by fifth grade students on Fridays if the school is not in the meeting. The district also works to make meals available to all students on their days off.

Childcare is not offered on public holidays such as working day or Good Friday.

According to state data, Floresville ISD had 4,073 students and 536 employees last year. The district identified 62% of its students as economically disadvantaged and endangered 47%.

In December, the district started a survey to measure the community's interest in the change. The board discussed the results at a meeting last month, in which trustees empowered the creation of the hybrid calendar.

Almost 70% of the respondents – including 66% of the parents and 82% of the staff – preferred the measure if the district provided childcare.

The students were not so supportive. Almost 60% said they didn't want the additional day.

The neighboring La Vernia ISD switched to a four -day week of school last year and started Bandera, D'Hanis, Utopia, Charlotte and Natalia ISDs among the nearby rural districts that have accepted it to remedy the lack of personnel.

A growing number of school districts in Texas has had the drastic switch since the state, as the lessons in the classroom was changed in 2015, and changed courses to 75,600 minutes per school year of the academic school year.

A study in August 2024 showed that 103 school districts in Texas attend courses in 115,000 students four days a week.

Proponents say that a four -day school week improves the morals of the teachers, which students give more time for families and can save the districts of money. Others, including the Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, have criticized the step to harm the student performance and say that the job satisfaction of the educators should not lead at the expense of academic results.

Morath was asked last week about the effects of the four -day school weeks at a meeting for public education from Texas.

“It's bad,” said the Commissioner. “The data are quite clear.”

In February, the Texas Education Agency published a study on the analysis of 2022-2023 student test data from 40 school districts in Texas with four-day weeks. The report showed that students of these districts are poor sections