New state legislation regarding the length of the school year has led to a new school calendar being proposed that would lengthen the school day but shorten the school year. This 2016-2017 draft calendar will be approved by the Frisco ISD Board of Trustees at its next meeting on January 19. The draft currently proposes that the high school day be lengthened by five minutes and the number of school days decrease from 177 days to 174 days.

“The state requires us to give instruction for a school day 75,600 minutes per school year,” FISD Deputy Superintendent for Business Services Richard Wilkinson said. “Because we release students half a day for the PSAT, half a day for graduation release, and half a day for EOC exams, we had to make up for the lost minutes [that the state required].”

If the draft is unchanged, the school day would end five minutes later at 4:15 p.m. with no decision yet as to where the extra time will fall.

“They could extend lunch time, passing periods, or class time,” Wilkinson said. “That decision will be made in February.”

For most students, the added time will not make much of a difference.

“I don’t really mind it because I think that the school day is long enough, but I don’t think that adding five more minutes will kill anyone,” freshman David Figueroa said. “The school day is what seven or eight hours? Five minutes isn’t going to do anything to anybody.”

The elementary school day will start at 7:45 a.m instead of 7:50 a.m. while the middle schools will remain the same.

Teachers’ contracts would still be 187 days with two additional staff development days at the beginning of the school year and a work-day on the first day back from winter break.

“I think the faculty will be pleased to get those work days,” librarian Jeana Chetty said. “There were often times where in the middle of the year teachers felt they needed more time to plan and reevaluate the curriculum and they didn’t have it, so they had to keep plowing through. I think these days  will give teachers a chance to stop and do some thinking on how everything is going.”

These changes are not final and will be reviewed in two weeks.

“We want the Board, the staff and the community to have time to ask questions about the draft calendar,” Superintendent Jeremy Lyon said. “Although the new legislation offered some challenges, we believe it has also created some real opportunities for improvement.”