Mineral Wells Area News

Mineral Wells ISD will maintain its four-day school week structure while adding instructional Fridays to comply with new state requirements from Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, according to Superintendent David Tarver.

The changes come as Commissioner Morath has restricted four-day districts from receiving certain instructional minute waivers that remain available to five-day districts.

“The commissioner doesn’t like four day school weeks, so he continues to do stuff to make it harder and harder on us,” Tarver said.

“We’re required to meet 75,600 instructional minutes a year… they would give a waiver up to 2,100 minutes. Well, because of his stance against the four-day school week, he has determined that four-day school weeks are not allowed to receive that waiver.”

In response to these changes, MWISD surveyed both parents and staff about potential calendar adjustments. The district developed multiple calendar options based on community feedback.

“Since we had to change, we wanted to survey the people to see, since we have to make a change, do we just make the minimum change? Or are there other things that we can address while we’re making a change and handle everything at once?” Tarver explained.

The winning calendar proposal will start classes on August 13th and add 10 instructional Fridays, with the last Friday instruction falling on October 17th.

On the topic of state education funding and vouchers, Tarver expressed concerns about accountability.

“You can’t find funding for an additional 90,000 students in the state and say it’s not ever going to affect public education,” Tarver stated.

He worried about “fly by night private school companies” that might emerge to capitalize on voucher funding “that don’t really truly have the educational interests of the child in mind rather than a business.”

Looking ahead to next year’s budget, Tarver indicated the district is planning proactively for anticipated funding challenges.

“We’re predicting to the best we can what that’s gonna look like and starting to plan for that right now, so we’re not caught in the moment,” he said.

While expressing optimism about maintaining programs through restructuring and attrition, Tarver noted that future state financing remains a crucial factor for the district’s long-term planning.