LUMBERTON, Texas — A proposal for moving to a four-day week for the next school year is being floated in Lumberton Thursday evening.
Board members will be discussing potential calendars for the 2023 -24 school year during a Lumberton Independent School District board meeting Thursday evening according to Mary Johnson, public information officer at the district.
One of the proposed calendars consists of a four-day school week, Johnson confirmed to 12News on Thursday.
If approved, students would attend school the traditional five days during the months of August and September.
Then for the rest of the school year, students would switch to the four day school week, with students spending an extra ten minutes in class each day.
In a meeting that was held Thursday night, December 8, 2022, at the Lumberton ISD offices at 121 South Main St in Lumberton, an unanimous poll was taken by 369 staff members. 77-percent voted yes and 22-percent voted no.
Lumberton ISD parents had mixed feelings about the new proposal.
Amy Smith says that she thinks the four day school week would help ease her schedule, since she has to pick up and drop of her kids to both school and practice.
On the other hand Lumberton ISD Parent Jerramie McGough, says that he is concerned about how what he will do with his kids for that extra day off.
The school board goes through the process of approving the next school year's calendar annually she said.
This would be the first year that the "District Education Improvement Committee" has ever included a four-day week in their proposals.
The committee, which is made up of district staff, administrators and community members, will be presenting several proposed versions of the school calendar, Johnson said.
Board members will get to hear hear about each proposed calendar and how each was developed but will not be voting on the issue tonight according to Johnson.
As of 2016, the Texas Education Agency switched from requiring 180 instructional days to 75,600 minutes per school year. That gave districts the freedom decide which days students attend school.
In 2019 after months of debate and conversations with parents the board at the Devers Independent School District unanimously voted for the district to switch to a four-day school week for the 2019-20 year.
Board trustees at the Jasper Independent School District voted in March 2022 to move their calendar to a four-day week that started for the current 2022-23 school year.
The Lumberton ISD school calendar for the next year is set to be approved at a board meeting in January 2022, Johnson told 12News.
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This is a developing story. We will update with more if and when we receive more confirmed information.