Why are schools starting earlier each year it seems? (Frisco: school district, vs)

[Waytoodeep03]

Whats even worse is them starting mid week or on a Thursday/Friday. Like come on. What does it hurt to start on a Monday morning? Why the rush or need to start a new school year before the last week of August and midweek or later?



Does it have to do with money funneling into the school district or this staar test which is the only thing that they seem to truly care about around here(but I will leave that alone)

[tmtex]

They have to go to school X amount of days. I believe now they have more breaks then before

[TheOverdog]

They are trying various strategies to lengthen the fall semester to make the fall and spring semester closer to the same length. It does include longer and more breaks in the spring.

[TurtleCreek80]

It’s just a calendar shift. I believe the state went to required “minutes” vs days in the past decade, but it still breaks down to 180ish average required days. They aren’t in school longer, per se.

Districts are just using their required days differently now. Most districts seem to take the entire week of Thanksgiving off whereas when I was growing up, the only days off were Thanksgiving & Friday and later on Wed - Fri. So that’s 2-3 days earlier most districts start.

Then, some districts start early & get out earlier. Frisco ISD starts today and last year school was out on May 17th which seemed exceptionally early to start summer break, IMO. In prior recent years, they started a little later but then the kids come back after Memorial Day in late May.

[rabbit33]

Because they can't figure out what to do, and monkeying with the calendar is an easy thing to change.

[MurphyPl1]

Originally Posted by Waytoodeep03

Whats even worse is them starting mid week or on a Thursday/Friday. Like come on. What does it hurt to start on a Monday morning? Why the rush or need to start a new school year before the last week of August and midweek or later?



Does it have to do with money funneling into the school district or this staar test which is the only thing that they seem to truly care about around here(but I will leave that alone)

If they start on a Thursday or Friday then they can get all the settling in out of the way and start fresh with learning on Monday.

[numbersguy100]

Adding to what others have written, I feel like Christmas break is getting longer too. I usually had school until the 23rd (which was always a half day). I remember years when Christmas was on a Tuesday and feeling excited that we'd be done on the 21st and it was two "free" days of vacation. Granted my kids are in private school so it's a little different, but they come back from Thanksgiving for 3 full calendar weeks and nothing more, regardless of how early that means Christmas break will begin. I still feel like most public schools around here are not going all the way until the 23rd.



As for starting on a Thursday, I can kind of see the logic there. The first day or two will mostly be things like learning names, figuring out your schedule, going over the course objectives/syllabus (in older years) or framing expectations (for younger kids). Better to get those things out of the way, and come back on a Monday ready to push forward.