The FBISD school board has approved calendar "B" for the 2007-2008 school year, a schedule that includes longer holiday vacations but a June 4 end date. Both calendars considered by the school board and presented to the public for input had an August 27 start-date due to changes in state law which no longer allow districts to start school earlier with an approved waiver. According to FBISD officials, 2545 out of 3011 respondents favored calendar B over calendar A (84.5%) in their website survey. The main differences between the two proposed calendars were that Calendar A showed two days off at Thanksgiving instead of 5, 8 days off at Winter Break instead of 10, a May 28 end-date, and a slightly longer first semester.
District personnel stated that the shortened Thanksgiving break in 2006 resulted in 4083 student absences on Monday, November 20 and 6757 on Tuesday, November 21. The absenteeism on those two days cost the district $164,000. For this reason, the district supported a full week off for Thanksgiving break.
Although many students, parents, and staff members expressed their preference to take semester exams before the Winter Break, the Calendar Committee determined the grading periods would be too unbalanced in that arrangement, district personnel said. Students will have ten days after returning from Winter Break before the first semester ends when they take final exams.
Many parents also suggested through the survey that they would support eliminating Fort Bend County Fair Day, a holiday on the fourth Friday of September. The district said they would consider this for the 2008-2009 calendar.
Another parent proposal was to consider moving Spring Break to another week so that Good Friday stands alone as a holiday. "The proposed schedule for Spring Break is consistent with the time other districts in the area are scheduling Spring Break. It was a coincidence that Good Friday fell during this week for 2008. This will not be a consistent issue, as Good Friday falls on different dates each year," said the district.
Dates for 2007-2008 Calendar
August 27 - school starts
September 3 - Labor Day holiday
September 28 - Fort Bend County Fair Day holiday
November 9 - staff development
November 19 - 13 - Thanksgiving break
December 20 - January 2 - Winter Break
February 29 - staff development
March 17 - 21 - Spring Break
May 2 - staff development
May 26 - Memorial Day holiday
June 5 - last day of school
June 6, 7 - graduation
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