Grapevine-Colleyville ISD launched an Education Advisory Committee in February 2024. The focus of the committee’s work for the spring primarily focused on high school bell schedules for 2025-2026, which included discussions about the instructional calendar, transportation logistics, and other topics related to campus operations. This group of dedicated employees, parents and administrators has made progress in many areas, and the district is excited to share those details with the greater GCISD community.
First, the district would like to acknowledge the work of the committee members and thank them for the time they volunteered to explore relevant and timely topics and present considerations to the district as part of the decision making process:
Appointed staff members Mandy Alexander*, Derek Cain, Michael Crow, Dr. Alex Fingers, Nancy Hale*, Mary Parsley*, Shelly Ray*, Todd Raymond, Michael Schilleci, Sheila Shimmick*, Dr. Paul Sikes, and Stephanie Speaks;
Parents Steffany Batik, Eunij Cho, Heather Dutton, Katie Foust, Dan Marek*, Kristi Mordhorst*, Carolin Namy, Mohit Punj, Michael Radigan, Lisa Roberts*, Tirzah Spencer, Vanessa Steinkamp, Julie Sullins, Trisha Tylick, Melanee Warren, Jamie Weatherall, and Kathryn Wheat;
Board Liaison Mary Humphrey; and
Facilitators Dr. Holly Ray, Dr. Shiela Shiver, Dr. Kalee McMullen, and Dr. Lisa Pedivilla
(*denotes GCISD employee and parent)
Below are summaries of each meeting:
February 21, 2024
Each meeting opened with introductions, purpose and scope of the committee and the meeting schedule for future meetings. Dr. Holly Ray and Dr. Kalee McMullen presented information about high school bell schedules and the GCISD instructional calendar. Information was provided about requirements, constraints and considerations around these topics. After the presentation of information, the committee members participated in small group work time surrounding the topics of the high school bell schedule and the District instructional calendar.
March 7, 2024
Kelly Mires, Chief Human Resources Officer, presented information about the educational impact of different high school bell schedules on conferences. Dr. McMullen presented on the master schedule with a focus on teacher preps. Dr. Ray reviewed the requirements for instructional minutes and presented the committee with information about bell schedules, conference times, school start times and instructional minutes from surrounding districts.
March 20, 2024
Paula Barbaroux, Chief Operations Officer, presented information about the educational impact of student transportation on the bell schedule and start/end times. Manny Rubio, Director of Transportation, was also present to answer questions.
The committee was presented with information summarizing the bell schedule, examples of school start/end times with additional minutes added, and the potential for additional embedded professional development days for teachers.
Committee Priorities
Priority 1: Ensure students continue to have the opportunity to earn eight credits.
Priority 2: Consider adding instructional minutes to the day.
Priority 3: Providing teachers with sufficient time to plan.
April 10, 2024
The committee put forth the following considerations for the District to consider in the decision making process for the 2025-2026 school year: add minutes to the school day to increase the amount of planning time for the teachers.
As a result, the District is considering adding additional minutes to the school day resulting in more planning days for teachers for the 2025-2026 school year. This aligns with the priorities set by the committee.
Although great consideration was given to the implementation of the additional minutes for the 2024-2025 school year, after much discussion about the impact of this change on transportation, nutrition services, operations, the Extended Day Program, and the Early Childhood Development Center, the decision was made to wait until the 2025-2026 school year in order to thoughtfully plan, prepare, and communicate these changes to our staff and families.
In addition, the 2024-2025 instructional calendar has already been approved and communicated to all stakeholders. A priority for the committee included providing teachers with sufficient planning time. Adding time to the instructional day would provide more planning time by incorporating additional professional development days to the instructional calendar designated as planning days, therefore this change would necessitate major changes to the approved instructional calendar.
To review the summaries from the meetings and view the presentations, visit https://www.gcisd.net/page/education-advisory-committee. The Education Advisory Committee will continue meeting again in the fall semester of 2024, and GCISD will continue to keep our families and staff informed of outcomes of future meetings.