By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
ELLIS — At a special meeting, Monday the Ellis USD 388 Board of Education approved a start date for the school year of Aug. 26.
The new date is a week later than the originally approved date.
"The reasoning behind that is the staff development," said USD 388 Superintendent Corey Burton. "When we were looking at the 18th and 19th for staff development days, those are already pretty jam-packed days with mandatory requirements that we have to get done to start school."
With new procedures and online instruction being considered for the year, the extra time will allow faculty to prepare prior to students' arrival.
"The shift is being asked, not necessarily because of COVID or COVID numbers, the shift is being asked to give us more planning time with teachers," Burton said.
The new calendar will not affect holidays or the end of the year.
"It allows us to keep all of those things consistent, it just gives us those extra days off the start to help us make sure we are ready to go," Burton said.
The board passed the measure unanimously.
Enrollment is also set to begin soon, Burton said and student materials will be delivered through the mail if possible.
With the new date set, planning will continue for instruction methods, beginning with a survey to parents being sent out this week.
"It's going to make a huge difference in how many kids are going to take an online option on how we manage that," Burton said. "Until we know who that is going to be, it's hard to say how we need to manage that."
