Clarendon and Hedley students could start back to class earlier this fall as those schools become what the state calls “Districts of Innovation.”
School officials say becoming a District of Innovation simply allows more local control and more flexibility when it comes to scheduling and setting calendars.
Clarendon ISD Superintendent Mike Norrell said the designation is an option schools can pursue under House Bill 1842 that was approved two years ago.
The state doesn’t have to approve a district’s decision to become a District of Innovation. The district simply follows a procedure to inform the state of its decision.
“Becoming a District of Innovation gives us greater local control and allows us more flexibility to tailor programs and procedures, the calendar for example, in more innovative ways to the needs of our students, staff, parents, and community,” Norrell said.
Hedley ISD Superintendent Colby Waldrop said the HISD Board of Trustees approved becoming a District of Innovation last month and that his employees are in favor of the idea, and he says Hedley will look at starting school about a week earlier than the state calls for.
“It just puts too much pressure later in the year if we can’t start about two weeks before Labor Day,” Waldrop said. “We need more class time before the test than after the test.”
Clarendon ISD will hold a public hearing at 4 p.m. next Wednesday, February 15, to get citizens’ feedback before trustees give final approval to becoming a District of Innovation, Norrell said. If CISD chooses that option, the school calendar will also adopt an earlier start date.
“We want to be able to balance the semesters better,” Norrell said.
Both Clarendon and Hedley have already taken advantage of another law, House Bill 2610, that changed the requirement from a school year comprising 180 days of instruction to one that is comprised of 75,600 minutes. That change also gave more local control over scheduling and district calendars.
In Clarendon, the school has adopted more half-days, including one at the end of each semester and one at the end of each six-weeks grading period, to give teachers time to enter grades.
Norrell said becoming a District of Innovation would give CISD more opportunities to do things like that while keeping the last day of school where it is at the end of May. Norrell said the new freedoms also allow Clarendon to have more three-day weekends during the year.
Hedley took a different approach to meeting their 75,600-minutes requirement. Waldrop said HISD lengthened each school day by 15 minutes and shaved six days off the school calendar.
“We get out about a week before Clarendon does for summer,” Waldrop said.
Both superintendents say their schools studied the District of Innovation concept carefully and consulted with other schools before pursuing the designation.
“We looked at this for a while and couldn’t see any negatives,” Norrell said.
In addition to calendar flexibility, Districts of Innovation have a bit more freedom to locally certify people to teach in certain instances, Norrell said. A designation as a District of Innovation lasts for five years.
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