School start time changed for 2016-2017 calendar

Marina Long, Staff writer

School start time will move five minutes earlier to 7:25 a.m. rather than 7:30 a.m. in the new school year of 2016-2017.

The Texas legislature changed the minimum requirement of attendance from 180 days to 75,600 minutes. In order to give every student the opportunity to meet these new requirements, the school district will add five minutes to the beginning of the school day. School will still end at 2:35 p.m.

While the changes to the schedule do not seem major, the effects are extensive. The school schedule will become more flexible, making it easier to make up days missed due to weather disruptions or other school days canceled due to other reason. If there are no days taken out unexpectedly then school will let out earlier that it has in the past. The sample calendar for this new schedule has the last day of school scheduled for May 27, 2017.