The Brownwood ISD board of trustees approved the school calendar for the 2014/2015 school year Monday night in a split vote.
The district’s site based committee recommended two choices of calendars for the board to consider. District administration also proposed an additional calendar for consideration for the school board.
In a split 4-3 vote of the board of trustees, the board approved one of the committee’s recommendations. The difference between the two committee recommended calendars was the choice of a student holiday/staff development day on either Martin Luther King, Jr. Day or President’s Day next year. The board approved the calendar that has President’s Day for the student holiday and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as an instructional day for students.
School board president Michael Cloy said that part of the decision was to allow students to participate in celebrations through school for holidays like MLK Day and Veterans Day.
“In regards to these holidays, Veterans Day and MLK Day, I refer to those two because I know that there are numerous activities that happen in this town,” Cloy said. “It would be my recommendation, and I know this is not a board action, if we could make those mandatory for elementary students to attend the parades that are associated with those events.”
Cloy said that he would like to see students attend those types of events, representing Brownwood ISD. He said he fears that when students are out of school for those holidays, the majority of students do not participate in those events.
“If they are sent as part of the educational process, to me, that shows a great amount of support from Brownwood ISD for both of those holidays that are significant to tons of people,” Cloy said.
The approved calendar for the next school year calls for a start date of Monday, August 25, 2014. The calendar also includes a 3-day holiday for Thanksgiving, two full weeks off for Christmas and the last day of school as May 29, 2015.
See the full calendar below for specifics on days off for the next school year.
