SCHOOL CALENDAR CHANGE: Students and parents please note! There has been a change in the current year school calendar for the week following the winter holidays. Students will return to school on Wednesday, Jan. 4, rather than Tuesday, Jan. 3.

At the La Porte ISD Board of Trustees meeting on Nov. 8, 2011, La Porte ISD trustees voted to approve a change affecting the 2011-2012 School Calendar. The change makes Jan. 3 an additional professional development day; therefore, students will return to school on Jan. 4 following the holidays.

The original 2011-2012 calendar brought students back into classrooms on Tuesday, Jan. 3, for the first day of instruction following the winter holidays. The La Porte ISD Administration recommended, and the Board approved, a request to substitute that day of instruction for a teacher professional development day. 

The extra day of professional development is intended to help teachers prepare for the new and more rigorous accountability system in Texas public education-State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). TEA rules permit school districts to waive up to five instructional days in the traditional 180 day school calendar for staff development when the professional development is designed to improve instructional effectiveness.

The current school calendar incorporates three such "waiver" days. This change adds a fourth "waiver day," and results in students returning to school on Wednesday, Jan. 4, following the winter holiday break.  LPISD received word on Dec. 6 that the waiver has been approved by the Texas Education Agency.

The calendars and letters that went home to parents are attached here and are also available in the Parent Portal page of the LPISD website.