Union Hill Moves to Four-Day School Week in 2016-17

BETTIE — Union Hill ISD, located in rural Upshur County, is making history as being the first pre-K through 12th grade school district in Texas to adopt a four-day instructional school week. KETK and the Longview News-Journal report the new schedule will take effect next school year. Gay Colbert is excited, saying it will give her grandchildren more enrichment opportunities. “(The new four-day schedule) gives an avenue for students to do tutoring in the morning and also enrichment programs that they may not have the chance to take otherwise,” said Colbert, president of the Union Hill ISD athletic booster club and grandparent to four Union Hill students. Olfen ISD, a kindergarten-to eighth-grade school 25 miles outside San Angelo, became the first district in the state to adopt the modified calendar.

Texas school districts have historically operated with a format that required them to offer at least 180 instructional days, but with the passage of House Bill 2610, schools are now required to adhere to a certain amount of minutes for instruction instead of days. That change allows districts to add flexibility to the school year by adding opportunities for enrichment. Union Hill’s 2016-17 calendar, which trustees approved in February, will offer students more than 76,000 minutes of instruction within 159 school days, just above the state’s yearly minimum of 75,600 minutes of instruction, according to Superintendent Troy Batts.

“What makes our calendar unique is that we will be able to offer students the optional enrichment days,” he said. “We will be utilizing a four-day instructional week, for the most part, with tutorial and enrichment opportunities on selected Fridays.”