WISD adopts five-day calendar

WOODVILLE – After months of consideration, meetings and surveys, the Woodville ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved the district’s instructional calendar for 2023-24, which will feature a five-day week with nine-week grading periods.

The board made the decision at its regular monthly meeting on Monday, March 20. Leading up to the decision, there had been discussion about the possibility of adopting a four-day instructional week, which several districts in the region have done.

The ultimate result of the surveys, meetings and information gathered resulted in “a strong winner,” according to WISD Superintendent Lisa Meysembourg.

The five-day calendar, which is modeled after a calendar used by New Caney ISD, has plenty of time built in for social, emotional and mental wellness of students, faculty and staff, Meysembourg said.

“We feel like it’s a very good calendar,” she said.

The nine-week grading period allows for more time for mastery of content, Meysembourg said. There will be fewer grades, so they will weigh more. Ultimately, it will allow more time to teach, with not as much testing being administered.

Facilities update given

Prior to the regular agenda portion of the meeting, two representatives from Gallagher Construction delivered a presentation on the CTE facilities rebuild project, which is part of the bond-funded district-wide renovations.

Todd Rhoades, of Gallagher, said that at present, an architect is busy drawing up the interior plans for the building. The drawings should be done, he said, by April 26, and six weeks after that, will be able to be brought to the WISD trustees for budget approval.

The plans have allowed for the moving of some of the workspaces in the building, so as to make better use of the space.

Rhoades recommended that WISD host a workshop with Gallagher representatives present, in order to share the designs with anyone who wishes to see them.

Mid-year progress reports

Another presentation delivered to the board was to demonstrate the middle-of-the-year progress reports by campus. Woodville Middle School principal Gina Kenner Greaff and Woodville High School principal Rusty Minyard presented a series of metrics to the board.

Greaff shared that the results of NWEA testing showed that the masters and meets criteria are “definitely not where we want it to be; we want those numbers to be higher,” but predicted a rise in growth and other measures.

Minyard said that his results put the campus’s teachers in groups to show growth trends, which are consistently on the rise, with one exception.

“Our teachers are doing a really good job,” he said.

The NWEA testing is used to compare students’ achievements against results nationwide.