Allen ISD approves 2021-22 calendar

The Allen ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved its calendar for the 2021-22 academic year last Wednesday.

The calendar was rigorously discussed and drafted at a Jan. 11 workshop meeting by an academic calendar committee consisting of campus, district and community leaders. Katie Kordel, Allen ISD’s chief innovation and strategic initiatives officer, officiated the workshop and presented the proposed calendar to the Board of Trustees.

The committee created the calendar with consideration to the Texas State Legislature’s requirement that schools accrue a minimum of 75,600 operational minutes (which translates to roughly 160 to 180 days) over the duration of the entire school year. Under the calendar approved by the Board of Trustees on Wednesday, Allen ISD schools will operate for 84 days in the first semester and 91 days in the second, aggregating for a total of 175 operational school days in the 2021-22 academic year.

Kordel also told the board that committee members had to allot a full week for Thanksgiving break and spring break, and two full weeks for Christmas break, all while ending the academic year before Memorial Day (May 30). To honor these parameters, the first semester will run from Aug. 11 to Dec. 17, while the second will run from Jan. 4 to May 20.

The calendar also designates a staff development trade day on March 7. Although this date marks the first day of spring break, it is considered an operational day pursuant to a Texas Education Agency policy that gives districts 2,100 waiver minutes to substitute student instruction days with days set aside for staff training and development. After approving the calendar, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to grant that waiver.