‘A REALLY HUGE WIN FOR THE TEACHERS’: FEWER WORKDAYS REQUIRED IN BRENHAM ISD’S 2025-26 CALENDAR
calendar adopted by the Brenham
School Board on Monday.
Teachers will have fewer required workdays in Brenham ISD’s newly adopted school calendar for the 2025-26 year.
Monday’s approval of the calendar by the Brenham School Board was preceded by trustees agreeing to amend Brenham ISD’s District of Innovation Plan. The amendment focuses on teacher workday exemptions over the course of 10-month contracts.
Chief Academic Officer Sara Borchgardt said the previous requirement of 187 contract service days limited the district’s ability to optimize the calendar. She said this change means the number of contract days will be determined based on the instructional calendar without having a strict 187-day requirement – in this case, the new calendar has 182 contract days – while still keeping in compliance with the state’s minimum instructional minutes requirement for students.
Borchgardt said the District of Innovation committee unanimously recommended approval of the amendment.
Board Vice President Jared Krenek said with this, teachers will keep their same level of pay with less time required of them. He said while the district may not be able to give teachers a pay raise right now, this is “a great opportunity for us to give them something back.” Trustee Archer Archer called it “a really huge win for the teachers.”
As for the calendar itself, students will head back to class on Wednesday, August 13th. They will have September 17-19 off for the county fair. The Thanksgiving break will run November 24-28. The last day of the fall semester will be December 19th, and students will come back on January 7, 2026.
Spring Break will be March 9-13, 2026. The final day of school will be May 22, 2026, with graduation that same day.
Krenek pointed out that the new calendar does not include half-days and expressed support of that adjustment. He said those days could prove difficult for working families who had to pick up their children from school midday, and he also felt there was not much learning that happened on half-days, anyway.
Observation as a parent and former employee
People outside the education system don’t realize or understand that Teachers don’t just work 7-4 M-F 10 months out of the year…… Teachers come in early and stay much later to grade papers, attend after hours meetings, prepare lesson plans and lessons….not to mention the hours spent working at home, on weekends, over “breaks” just to make sure they are giving their students the best possible education!
This is NOT a win for teachers! EVERYONE on each campus is important to make everything happen every day!
As a BISD teacher, there will not be less time required of me with the reduction in contract days. I still have all the content creation, grading, planning, etc. that has to get done. It’s really tone deaf to say this is a huge win, when the same amount of work exists which will still be completed by our teachers. I’m not sure how many people in Brenham understand that very little curriculum is actually provided to teachers, most teachers have to create their curriculum or purchase it through Teachers-Pay-Teachers with their own money. A “huge win” would be a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) added to teachers salaries each year and curriculum provided to teachers…I’m being facetious when saying this would be a huge win when it should already be provided.
Whatever.
It’s merely someone at CO filling out the District of Innovation paperwork to have more freedom of a calendar than anything else. BISD used to be a DOI and then no one made a decision to keep going amid the changing of the guard when the Superintendent left. This isn’t a raise, nor is it a gift to teachers as it is made out to be. It is giving the district more flexibility by using minutes vs days required under DOI.
Wow! Kudos to our school board for blessing TEACHERS with the gift of time. BUT what about the LOWEST paid employees of Brenham ISD??
Child Nutrition
Clerical/Support Staff
Custodians
Maintenance
Transportation
It is extremely difficult to find people to work in these positions with the current pay rate and if a district decides these departments are not vital; what would teachers do if they didn’t have custodians to clean up student messes? What if drivers weren’t available to pick up students? Maintenance workers to fix things, and child nutrition employees to prepare and serve meals?
These folks haven’t had a raise in 3 years either BUT they still have to make ends meet. Inflation affects these people as well. These people make LESS than $20,000 a year; with most making significant less. They could quit and work elsewhere but if they are working in a job that they love and have the heart for, they endure and move on. All the while the district continues to take advantage of them, their time, and their passion. A majority of the lowered paid have second jobs just to make ends meet. Where does that leave family time for them? The board and CHIEFS with make these decisions without a second thought of how they will sustain this. Will the district teacher contracts go back to 187 the following school year? This is something that will be difficult to take back. I just don’t see that happening. This decision lowers already low morale. These low paid district employees need to be considered anytime pay or “paid holidays” is discussed.
Maybe the over paid coaches can part with a few dollars.
Seems interesting that the rest of the support staff will still be required to work the same amount of days without any additional compensation. Looks like they got left out in the cold.
What about the rest of the district employees who also have not had a raise in several years. This article blatantly does not mention anyone else. Teachers are absolutely the most important employees. However, the district cannot run without transportation, food service, maintenance, office workers and custodians. Will they also be compensated with the ‘gift of time’ ? Or, will those days be tacked on somewhere else for the other workers? Please address the question of how the rest of the district employees are being compensated!
Same pay with higher cost of living and insurance is not a huge win
Teachers will keep their “same level of pay with less time required of them”.
Sounds like a raise.
How long are those new days going to be? As a former teacher it sounds like longer hours, less days, same pay. Doesn’t put any more food on the table…
Let Kyle be in the pictures…. My goodness.
Whoopie. Just means that the daily rate increased, not overall contractual pay. It’s bad enough that more and more students don’t respect the adults on campus, but this is like the pigeon strutting on the chessboard. Your teachers can see through this. It won’t stop some of your experienced and overburdened veteran teachers—the ones who have their classroom management refined and can teach their content amazingly—from walking away from Brenham, either.
They will not give teachers a raise because if SB 26 passes teachers will get from $ 5,000.00 to $ 10,000.00 raise. It will be based on years of experience.
To get the $ 5,000.00 or $ 10,000.00 you will have to be in a district with 5,000 or less students enrolled
SB 26 would also provide teachers with free pre-k for their children and liability insurance for educators.
Feels a little patronizing to tell teachers that it is a “Really Huge Win” to be getting a few extra days off while not receiving a raise. In a sense it is like saying “let them eat cake.” Prices of goods and services have increased quite a bit the last few years. Teachers are going to need to get a second job just to get by. Do the right thing and give them a raise.