The Lewisville ISD school day will look different in the 2026-27 school year after the school board voted Monday to add 10 minutes to the school day and swap middle and high school start times.
The Lewisville ISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved adding 10 minutes to the school day at all campuses to provide teachers more planning time and flexibility.
“The number one request we get from teachers – we would love to pay them more, but even more than pay, our teachers want time,” said board member Dr. Staci Barker. “So yes, these extra 10 minutes allow for a safeguard, but the selling point for me was additional planning time for our staff members.”
Board President Jenny Proznik said the extra time could benefit students and teachers at every level.
“It will allow for some flexibility throughout the day, especially when we have pep rallies at the high school,” she said. “It could also add some more advisory time for our middle school students and maybe an extra bathroom break or a few more minutes out on the playground for our elementary students.”
The board also voted 5-2 to swap high school and middle school start times after a lengthy discussion, citing the safety concerns for early drop off times at middle schools.
For the 2026-2027 school year, school hours will look like this:
- High schools will start at 8:50 a.m. and release at 4:15 p.m.
- Middle schools will start at 8:15 a.m. and release at 3:40 p.m
- Elementary schools will start at 7:40 a.m. and release at 3:05 p.m.
Board members wrestled with the idea of disrupting the current schedule and high school extracurricular programs, particularly band families that will be affected by the change, but decided it was best for the district to ensure the safety of middle school students.
Since middle school students can’t drive themselves, board member Michelle Alkhatib said she has seen students dropped off more than an hour before the day starts, standing around unsupervised, even during stormy weather.
She also said it would be hard to ask staff to come in earlier to watch the students since the district is already under budget constraints.
“Those middle school kiddos can’t drive to campus and a lot of those parents go straight from dropping them off to work,” said Alkhatib. “Unfortunately, we can’t ask our middle school teachers to come in earlier to watch those students because that’s an extra cost and we don’t have the extra funds for that cost.”
According to Vice President Katherine Sells, it’s one of the topics that gets brought up to her most among constituents.
“I get more emails, phone calls and texts during the year about drop-off times for middle school students than anything else,” she said.
In addition, Barker talked about the bussing issues for the district, citing middle school as being most affected by bussing challenges.
According to LISD Chief Student Services Officer Jeffrey Kajs, the district has been told a bus routing system on a schedule with elementary schools starting first, middle second and high school last would improve the efficiency of the district’s bus transportation.
Board member Madison Lopez also cited some research that suggested high school students would benefit from a later start time, allowing them more sleep.
“By changing the schedules, we would be aligning some of the scientific research on sleep for adolescents with our schedule,” she said. “This would take into account that high school students tend to do better academically and in extracurriculars when there is a later start [time]. Not only does the staggering make sense in terms of age, but the research supports it.”
Despite voting against the motion, board member Dr. Sheila Taylor acknowledged high school students had some more flexibility with the ability to drive themselves.
She didn’t think the board was quite ready to make a decision this year on a start time change, especially with the possibility of disrupting extracurricular schedules.
“The older kids have more flexibility, some of them are driving, but in a period of unreadiness, I’m inclined to keep things the way they are,” she said. “You run the risk of having kids who can’t participate now because times have changed and they don’t have transportation to get back and forth.”
Board member Allison Lassahn also voted against the change, citing the effects it would have on extracurricular activities, students with after school jobs, caring for younger siblings and the changes families in the district are already dealing with.
“Over the past couple years as a board, we have had to make some very tough decisions that have affected our staff, students and families – all of the changes we have made to this point have been for budgetary reasons,” she said. “Although they were hard, they were necessary. Changing school start times is not one of these reasons. In a time when we’re asking a lot of our constituents, why should we disrupt one group for the sake of another. Changing start times would not be just a minor disruption, it would make a major difference in how high schools programs do business.”
Following a lengthy discussion, Lopez sent a message to the community and assured them there was a lot of thought put into the decision based on community input.
“I want to say thank you to the community for caring and taking the time to give us your feedback because we want to listen and we appreciate your perspective,” she said.
