The calendar for next year includes a extended teaching period for Elementary and all secondary schools, including Heritage This new calendar will change school hours from 8:25 a.m. to 3:55 p.m. and there will be no early release for homecoming, school will release May instead of June, and winter break will be lengthened to two and a half weeks.

After the 84th Legislative Session passed House Bill 2610 that changes the current measure of required instruction from days to minutes. This change will allow districts to add additional minutes of instruction in the event of lost school time due to health and safety reasons. One day of instruction is 420 minutes with school districts providing at least 75,600 minutes of instruction instead of 180 days.

Although the day will be 30 minutes longer, this will allow school to get out earlier around Memorial Day weekend.

“It will give us more of a flexibility with when we can have inclimate weather and holidays,” Assistant Principal Cesar Condarco said.

The time change will especially benefit the students as teachers will no longer have shove a whole lesson into forty-five minutes. Giving students more time to learn and process information before a test, and teachers more time to teach their students thoroughly.

Even though after the 30 minutes are distributed among the periods there will only be a five minute increase in time, every minute counts. Whether it’s getting that last second question or finishing your work this will prove to be a helpful change to the school.