CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi public schools switch to a year-round schedule after the CCISD board of trustees approved the 2020-21 calendar Monday.
What CCISD calls “year-round” school really only adds about three weeks to the calendar; and for the most part, both parents and teachers support the extended schedule.
The 2020-21 Corpus Christi ISD school year starts August 13th and runs through June 3rd. The Texas Education Agency recommended all districts, that don’t already do so, adopt year-round schedules so students can catch up for time lost because of the pandemic.
“The teachers are ready, next year, to fill in the gap, whatever that may be from when they left school to coming back,” said CCISD parent Taylor Marburger.
Not all parents, however, agree with the TEA’s assessment.
“I don’t think they’re behind, if anything they’re probably doing more work than ever,” said Jacqueline Pepin.
Pepin has three boys in public school. Under the “year round” calendar, they’d be in the classroom the same number of days, 174. The extra time is added as 14 intercession days over three weeks scheduled for Sept. 28 to Oct. 2, Jan. 19-22 and June 7-11.
“That will allow the teachers, if they like, to be able to give enrichment classes, and it will also allow the students who need assistance to also come and get that extra instruction that they need,” said Dr. Nancy Vera, President of the Corpus Christi American Federation of Teachers.
Vera says CCISD worked with the union on setting the schedule, and those intercession days aren’t mandatory for teachers or students.
“I’m a stay-at-home mom so it doesn’t really affect me that much, but I guess some parents might have trouble finding child care,” said Marburger.
Like most teachers, Marburger’s daughter is ready to go back to school, but before classrooms reopen, there are plenty of questions to answer. Questions linked to the pandemic which has kept school out since spring break.
“The devil is in the details,” said Vera. “We don’t know what that’s going to be like, what the size of the classrooms are going to be like, what the sanitation procedures are going to be.”
With the calendar now in place, CCISD is finalizing those details. The district expects to release more information available over the next few weeks.