Frequently Asked Questions

• Students will attend a four-day schedule with Fridays off every week
• Teachers and instructional staff will work one Friday each month as a professional development and planning day
• Maintenance and custodial staff will continue to operate on a five-day schedule, as voted upon by the majority of our maintenance and custodial staff

Yes. AlphaBest would offer either Friday-only or afterschool & Friday care for students. This would be available to CISD families and staff members, at cost. Fridays only would cost $35 a day per student, and after school care would follow current rates with an additional $35 per student on Fridays.

• The Texas Education Agency (TEA) requires school calendars to have a minimum of 75,600 minutes of instructional time. In order to meet this requirement and eliminate one day of instruction per week, Community ISD had to add minutes to the daily schedule from what students experienced during the 2022-23 school year. In the current school year, students are attending classes 465 minutes per day. In the new four-day instructional method, students will attend classes 495 or 496 minutes per day, depending on the campus they attend.

  • Elementary students will attend class 7:20 am - 3:35 pm, Monday through Thursday (495)
     

  • Secondary students will attend class 8:05 am - 4:21 pm, Monday through Thursday (496)
     

• The daily rate was increased to 495 or 496 minutes to accommodate state-required CTE average minutes of instruction.
   

• To accommodate the additional instructional time per day and reduced number of days worked, the working day for CISD staff will now be nine hours.

No. All three calendar options were required to keep the same pay for all staff, so that whatever option was chosen would not adversely impact the men and women that work so hard to take care of our students and families. The four-day instructional method was considered and ultimately chosen as a way to increase recruitment and retention of high quality staff. Lowering pay would negate that advantage.

Fridays better align with dual credit schedules and with extracurricular activities, and allow transportation to better accommodate events outside of Brave Nation.

After consulting with Region 10 ESC and many different school districts in the state of Texas, Community ISD has committed to a pilot program of the 4-day instructional method and will maintain this calendar for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years.

• Recruiting and retaining high quality staff is more difficult than ever with burnout and employee turnover at an all-time high, and fewer individuals entering the education workforce.

• On top of normal turnover that all school districts face, we also face high demand for additional staff for new campuses opened each year because of our high growth rate.

• Districts that have a four-day work week have retained employees at a higher rate, despite paying less to their employees than Community ISD.

• With an increase in high-quality employees, student success should also increase.

• Student and staff morale will increase.

• Having one day off a week will help with attendance rates of both students and staff.

• In our second poll, open to all stakeholders, the majority (67.4%) voted for this option, including the majority of students (77.3%), staff (80.2%), and parents (57.3%).

The school year will start a week earlier than in 2022-23, and will end a week later on May 23.

• New staff orientation will begin on July 26, with all staff returning on August 1.
• Students will begin the school year on August 7.

No, because the school district is required to meet a minimum amount of instructional time (75,600 minutes) by the state.

No. This calendar is considered budgetarily neutral.

• All sports and UIL activities that previously had events on Fridays will still take place on Fridays.
• One benefit to the four-day instructional method is that our transportation department will now be better able to accommodate events outside of Brave Nation, with sponsors/coaches able to focus on monitoring students and coaching their events, instead of driving the bus to and from campus.
• An additional benefit is that our middle school, freshmen, and JV sports that compete on Thursday nights will no longer have to wake up early to attend school on Fridays.

• Throughout this process, CISD administrators and the Board of Trustees will do the following to determine the success of this pilot project:

  • Compare student academic performance to previous school years and surrounding districts.

    • STAAR tests, reading levels, math skills levels, dual credit participation and completion, graduation rates, and industry-based certifications

  • Compare student and employee attendance rates to previous years.

  • Distribute multiple surveys to district stakeholders annually, evaluating their view and taking input on adjustments that can be made.

  • Compare employee retention rate to previous years and other districts.

  • Evaluate the number of certified and highly qualified applicants for each open position, and how long positions stay open on our job board after posting.