Teachers express concerns over school calendar

A change in instructional days for Calhoun County ISD teachers was the topic of a public hearing Monday, April 15.

Teachers, members of the public along with CCISD administrators were in attendance at the District Support Center at Travis Middle School to discuss an option to modify the District of Innovation Plan, which would allow the district the flexibility to determine teacher contract days at a local level.

Superintendent Evan Cardwell noted the district proposed multiple options for review by the District Education Improvement Advisory Committee.

“DEIAC has provided feedback to us on how to adjust the calendar and narrowed it down to two options,” said Cardwell.

DEIAC will vote on the two options and the winner will be sent to the CCISD Board of Trustees for adoption.

“When DEIAC votes, will the vote be based on the people you represent? Will you vote how they want?” asked teacher Nancy Bull.

“We will vote on how the people we represent want,” said a DEIAC committee member.

Cardwell said districts are allowed to alter and change days as it sees fit based on the 187 workdays the states required.

“So, that’s kind of the foundation we’re at,” he said.

Bull asked about compensation, and would it go up with more days added and down if days were taken away..

“It’s not saying that if we go up, the salaries will increase based on the days, if we go up, what’s the compensation for going up?” she asked. “There’s no effect, we could go back to 187 and it doesn’t matter.”

Cindy Krause, a retired CCISD teacher, asked how this would impact the students: “I don’t see how we directly show how it’s impacting kids and their success,” she said. “This is my opportunity, in a public forum, to say I don’t think there’s a person in here that works with kids that don’t want it to impact them favorably. But if we don’t see it and we don’t communicate it, then it’s hard for people to support it.”

Teacher Connie Wooldridge noted that teachers want the days to stay the same or with additional pay for the extra days while the district office often wants to increase days without increasing pay.

“The district office says it’s what’s best for the children,” she said. “Those words were once on the district office walls. Those buzzwords keep coming up and the people who make the decisions and use those phrases are rarely around the students.”

Wooldridge explained that high school students have eight 45-minute classes with a 35-minute homeroom and a 25-minute lunch.

“Is this the best for our students,” she asked. “Be honest about what’s going on in the district and why we need the additional days. If our district is having issues, share those concerns because some of our leaders want to give the impressions that we don’t have problems.”

“But we do,” Wooldridge continued. “We have intelligent people across our district that have great ideas but our district relies only on those in the district office because they know what’s best for our students. We want our students to graduate from high school and find a career that is perfect for them. We want them to have happy homes and happy futures.”

Teacher Megan Strauss, who has 26 years in the profession, said the changes could cost the district to lose its experienced teachers.

“But the part that has angered me the most is the deceit that I’m starting to feel to what was done and that it was going to be done again this year,” said Strauss. “Even though the District of Innovation clearly states 182, it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. What else happens in this district that goes against policy and is just pushed through?”

Strauss spoke about Hurricane Harvey, the COVID-19 pandemic and Winter Storm Uri that resulted in days out of school that the teachers were not docked for nor had to make up.

She also noted that giving teachers the last day of school off is unrealistic due to grading they are required to complete after final exams.

“So, we will either be forced to work late Thursday or come back on Friday,” she said. “If this deceit keeps up you’re not gonna see teachers with 26 plus years of experience very much longer.”

The DEIAC committee met following the public hearing, where the group voted not to amend the calendar and to keep it the same.

The school board voted on the district calendar Monday. The 2024-2025 calendar allows for 173 student days and 182 teacher days.