What? The Fort Bend School District Is Looking At Cutting Back On Instruction Days?

Photo by Margaret Downing

HISD's Terry Grier

​If there's one thing Houston school district superintendent Terry Grier likes to do, it's hold meetings. Marathon meetings.

At today's get-together with the school board, a whole slew of various subjects came up.

As he was talking about budget cuts and how HISD plans to deal with them, Grier took some time to make a startling announcement and pat himself on the back a bit.

"The Fort Bend school district is talking about lowering the number of days in the school calendar," he said, while HISD is looking to increase theirs.

What? Fort Bend is dealing with its own budget crisis by cutting the school calendar? That should get people riled up out there, right?

It possibly could, if it were true.

We asked the district if any proposals were under discussion to cut the school calendar or the school week.

"We are not considering either of the things you mention," spokeswoman Mary Ann Simpson says.

She sent along what she called "the minor adjustments we are making in regard to transportation" to deal with costs.

The changes do change the start/stop times of schools, but not the length of the day. And they make some students walk farther to the stops, and are aimed partly at having each bus carry more kids.

HISD, by the way, is contemplating its own cuts/changes in its transportation set-up, in order to reduce costs.