Red Oak ISD Will Have School On March 28 & April 18
When winter plays havoc and school is canceled, districts have to evaluate their calendars and make decisions about make up days. Following multiple weather days and one missed day of instruction due to COVID staff shortages, Red Oak ISD is converting two upcoming staff development days (student holidays) into regular school days. Monday, March 28, and Monday, April 18 will be full school days with all students on a normal schedule to make up for missed instructional time.
“Every year we spend hours on developing a calendar to fit the needs of all 6,300 students from PreK through their senior year, the work schedules of over 850 full-time plus part-time employees, all while meeting the TEA guidelines for instruction and various district contract days,” stated ROISD Superintendent Brenda Sanford.
Required Operational Minutes
Districts must offer a minimum of 75,600 operational minutes of school. Each day equates to approximately 455 minutes (which does vary by school level); roughly 163 or more days to meet the requirement. The district regularly builds in additional days for weather concerns, but we also used some for the House Bill 4545 Academic AID week in early January before the shortage and weather. HB 4545 details were released after the start of school. Staff development days are the next preferred days to use rather than extending the school year.
“Professional development is important for all district employees to grow, but we must focus on student learning and make up this instructional time sooner rather than later,” added Sanford. “We want to communicate this to families as soon as possible so any plans can be modified for students to be at school now on those days.”
Red Oak ISD is currently developing next year’s school calendar and plans to post for parent, student, and staff input in early March. Please make sure to look for survey and participate.
