Originally published on 1/13/2021
At the January 12, 2021 Board Meeting, Alvin ISD Trustees approved the 2021-22 Academic Calendar.
Alvin ISD students will return to school after the summer break on Thursday, August 19th.
However, transition students (Pre-K, Kindergarten, 6th graders, and 9th graders) will begin school on Wednesday, August 18th. Many students are anxious about the first day of school each year, so this “transition day” is intended for students in these grades to help ease this anxious feeling.
“These grade levels are transitioning to a new school and a new environment. Attending a day earlier will allow these students to attend their first day of school in a setting with a limited number of students and hopefully set their minds at ease,” said Renae Rives, Alvin ISD Director of Communications.
Teachers will return on August 9th and teachers that are new to the district will report August 4th for New Teacher Professional Learning. The calendar is similar to last years where students will dismiss early for the Christmas holiday on December 17, 2021 and will not return until January 4th. The last day of school will be on Friday, May 27th, which is also an early dismissal day.
Many questions have been asked about school hours. The district added 15 minutes to the 2020-2021 school calendar to help with the safety and transition of our face to face students throughout the school day due to the pandemic. The 2021-22 calendar removed some of these additional minutes and adjusted the start and end times. The 2021-22 school hours will be as follows: High School – 7:20 am – 2:50 pm, Junior High – 8:40 am – 4:10 pm, Elementary – 8:00 am – 3:30 pm.
House Bill (HB) 2610, passed by the 84th Texas Legislature, requires districts to operate for a minimum of 75,600 minutes (including intermissions and recess). This bill also allows school districts to add minutes as necessary to compensate for minutes of instruction lost due to school closures caused by disaster, flood, extreme weather conditions, fuel curtailment, or another calamity.
“The new school hours for Alvin ISD have students attending school for 450 minutes on regular school days and 210 on the two early dismissal days. This means there are 77,370 minutes in the Alvin ISD 2021-2022 School Calendar, which meets the minimum requirement of HB 2610. The additional 1,770 minutes also meet the requirement of containing additional “bad weather” make-up time in case the district has to close schools due to circumstances out of our control,” shared Rives.
As you can see, the process of developing a school calendar is not an easy feat. Numerous parents, community leaders and staff spent months developing an academic calendar that would best suit the needs of students, parents and staff. The committee, referred to as the District Education Improvement Committee (DEIC), was led by Alvin ISD administrators and were tasked with collecting data and input from parents and district staff. The committee collaborated over several meetings to create the approved calendar. The District also asked for feedback from the community on the proposed calendar through a survey in November 2020. The instructional needs of students, along with the needs of local businesses, as well as the input provided by parents & staff, were all placed into consideration in the development of the calendar.
“We always strive to put the needs of our students first. In an effort to do so we wanted to pull all involved parties to determine the best process and input for an academic calendar. We are so thankful to all the DEIC members who sacrificed their time for the students of Alvin ISD,” said Carol Nelson, Alvin ISD superintendent of schools.
As far as the future of Alvin Virtual Learning after the 2020-21 school year, Rives shares, “At this time, we don’t have an answer on whether Alvin ISD will be able to offer virtual learning during the 2021-22 school year. School districts were allowed to offer virtual learning this year because TEA allowed flexibility in attendance counting laws because of the COVID pandemic. TEA has not stated whether this flexibility in attendance counting laws will be allowed in the 2021-22 school year. The district will continue to discuss all available options for learning platforms for the 2021-22 school year and will communicate any decisions to our parents.”
To view the approved calendar, visit www.alvinisd.net/calendar
To view the FAQs. visit here.