SSISD OKs new school calendar

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  • SSISD Board of Trustees President Robert Cody and trustee Jason Dietze discuss the amended calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. Staff photo by Tammy Vinson
    SSISD Board of Trustees President Robert Cody and trustee Jason Dietze discuss the amended calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. Staff photo by Tammy Vinson
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Start date pushed to Sept. 1

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The Sulphur Springs ISD Board of Trustees met for a special session Monday evening to discuss changes to the 2020-2021 school calendar.

Superintendent Mike Lamb requested board approval to delay the official start date for SSISD students until Tuesday, Sept. 1, and to extend the school day for elementary campuses by 15 minutes. All campuses will begin classes at 7:50 a.m. and dismiss at 3:35 p.m. The coming school year will consist of 158 instructional days (instead of the usual 168), 22 designated makeup days in June 2021 (if there are campus shutdowns due to COVID-19) and 10 additional staff preparation days.

Pushing the students’ start date back by 10 days will allow the district more time for teacher training, as well as time for teachers to apply what they learn in those training sessions to prepare for online teaching in the event of COVID-19 closures or extended individual student absences.

“Every teacher will be a virtual teacher to some extent, so everyone has to be prepared,” said trustee John Prickette.

The district planned to send emails to parents asking them to commit to either in-person, on campus learning or remote learning through SSISD Virtual Academy for the first nine-week grading period of the school year. Commitment responses will be due Tuesday, Aug. 4.

SSISD is providing parents with a list of resources and activities to help their child shift back into “school mode” with their “Gear Up” section of the website at /www.ssisd.net/page/curr.resources.parents.

Regarding sports, Lamb said EDGE training would resume during the last three weeks of August in the evenings. UIL regulations do not allow official athletic practices until the first day of school.