Seguin ISD votes on 2022-2023 school calendar

Seguin, TX, USA / Seguin Today

Cindy Aguirre

Resident proposes more community input in future calendar planning

(Seguin) — The Seguin ISD has locked in important dates and holidays for the upcoming school year.

The Seguin ISD Board of Trustees this week approved the instructional calendar for the 2022-2023 school year.

One of the top and new differences for the district is that the next school year will end before the Memorial Day holiday. That last day for students will be Friday, May 26, 2023.
Other components of the calendar include the start of the school year which will be Monday, Aug. 15.

The first day of class for Ball Early Childhood Center will be two days later Wednesday, Aug. 17.

Intercession days will also again be included twice in next year’s calendar. Those allotted three days include Oct. 19-21 and Feb. 1-3.

Seguin ISD Superintendent Matthew Gutierrez says the calendar was overwhelmingly supported by campuses while components of the calendar, such as the intercession days which were introduced this current year, were rated by the public via an online ThoughtExchange survey conducted prior to this week’s approval.

“Because you hear from different stakeholders that they are just very exciting about intersession in keeping it and you hear from others that they are not and so you hear a variety of things and with ThoughtExchange allows us to do is really get a good sense of how people are feeling when they share their thoughts and then when you look at the number of ratings a thought gets that are positive or negative and so the highest rated thoughts naturally rise to the top and so we look at those thoughts that rise to the top and base decisions on those and we felt that after going through that ThoughtExchange and looking at the almost 400 thoughts and their ratings, we felt that we could go ahead and move forward with this calendar,” said Gutierrez.

Dr. Gutierrez says he thanks each of those individuals who took part in rating and sharing their thoughts. He says this feedback was very important for the district and was ready and willing to make any changes should there have been a need.

“On the ThoughtExchange, you don’t have to necessarily provide a thought in order to rate them and so many people will just go in and look at the thoughts and rate them. You don’t have to provide a thought so that tells us that there was certainly a high level of community engagement with this ThoughtExchange. It was one of the most engaging that we have had,” said Gutierrez.

Although the district utilized an online survey to help collect thoughts regarding the instructional calendar, one local parent and small business owner says she would like to see the district do more in better gauging not only the parents but local businesses who also are impacted by the additional days off from school.

Speaking before the board was resident Katie Edwards. Edwards also spoke to KWED about her feelings on the issue, and why she thinks the district needs to further engage the entire community on this issue.
“I think that we really need feedback from businesses and parents in the community because we are not a work from home community. COVID has taught that with everything that has happened the last two years. We are a manufacturing and service community and having additional days or various days throughout the calendar that are not normal, can put a burden on families that are working and trying to find childcare at the same time,” said Edwards.

Similarly, Edwards says the early dismissal days have schedules for UIL students that are out of the norm.
She says she was also notified that JAAM, the afterschool program, does not operate on early dismissal days.
Varied schedules, no bus transportation, and no childcare, she says can become a burden to working parents.

In her presentation to the board, Edwards also went on to state:
That “the majority of work is shift work, which consists of 10-to-12-hour shifts.” She says because of the requirements of their assembly lines or duties — some employees cannot take off for just part of their shift, nor can some employers allow large percentages of their workers to take off all at one time.

Edwards says she reached out to some employers and asked about “the number of PTO/Sick/Vacation/holidays days provided.” She says, “while many businesses are very generous, they do notice that there is an increase in requests or last-minute calls in on days that the schools are closed.”

Edwards says she just thinks the district should allow more input on these decisions.

“I personally would just want involvement at any level, so I presented in the meeting tonight that I have seen it three different ways across the state of Texas, which is one, including parents and community members on the decision making committee for the calendar. Two, putting up a survey ahead of time which would outline our wants and needs are, what is most important to us about the calendar and then the last would be as simple as having the option to vote on either the version A or version B calendar as an entire community and not just in the school district,” said Edwards.

Meanwhile, the district notes that the ThoughtExchange survey conducted earlier this month resulted in 561 participants and included 397 thoughts on the calendar and 10,297 ratings for the various thoughts and questions shared.
In adopting the calendar for the upcoming school year, Dr. Gutierrez says he remains confident in the online responses. He says there was definite overwhelming support for ending the year before Memorial Day and for including the additional days of intersession – days designed to help those students needing extra support. He did add that the district is committed of thinking of ways to further solicit feedback from parents.
First semester district holidays for students include Labor Day (Sept. 5); Thanksgiving (Nov. 21-25) and Christmas Break (Dec.19-Jan.3.)

Second semester district holidays include Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan.16); staff-in service days/student holiday (Feb. 20); Spring Break (March 13-17); Good Friday (April 7) and Memorial Day, (May 29).
Half days for next year also include Sept. 21; Nov. 2, March 1, and April 19.

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