By Jenae Hackensmith, Austin Daily Herald

AUSTIN — After months of research, Austin Public Schools’ calendar committee recommended the school board continue researching starting classes at 8:30 a.m. and not having breaks longer than eight weeks, including the summer break.

Calendar committee leaders and teachers Jill Rollie and Brandon Button, along with several committee members, presented their findings from the months of research done in 2014 to the board Monday. The board did not take action and will continue discussing the topic.

The committee of about 50 community members — parents, teachers, students, school-board members and others — researched different options for a school’s yearly calendar, as well as other options, such as start time, that could help students.

About 84 percent of the committee recommended further investigating an 8:30 a.m. or later start time for grades five through 12, while maintaining the current number of instructional minutes per day. About 92 percent of the group recommended further investigation of what it called a “balanced calendar” with breaks no longer than eight weeks, while maintaining the current number if instructional days per year.

Rollie thanked the committee members for their work.

“It is really neat to see the interest that the community has, and like I said, the dedication of their time,” Rollie said. “I hope to see a continuation, or a further investigation.”

Many group members came in open-minded, while others came in either supporting or not-supporting the idea of changing the calendar or start time, he said.

“I think it was really exciting that we had a diverse group of people commit and dedicate so much time to really research and dive into student achievement in our district,” Rollie said.

If the board decides to continue with research, more committees would discuss what calendar and time options could look like in Austin. The new committee would look at busing, scheduling for extracurricular activities and other areas that would be affected by the change. It would not decide whether to make changes to the current Austin schedule, but rather would research changes that could be beneficial to Austin and its students.

If the board eventually approved a change for the district’s calendar or start time, the changes probably wouldn’t be implemented for at least two years.

Button said there are many obstacles ahead if research continues, but one sticks out.

“I think the notion of change in general, you know preconceived notions about things that people have heard and that’s something that maybe has stuck with them,” he said. “Change is hard for everyone.”

After Sumner Elementary School started its calendar of 45 weekdays on and 15 weekdays off — which district leaders hailed as successful — community members started wondering whether the district should look at other options for the district as a whole.

The committee of volunteers first met last April, meeting twice a month, except for summer break, through December. The members looked at 12 different articles initially, looked at other school districts to see what they had done, and continued to research as meetings progressed.

“I really want to say thank you to all of the committee, or the working group that stayed in it and stayed with it,” Rollie said.

The members met in a large group setting, as well as small working groups, to discuss and go over each article and look further into the topics. Then they voted on each topic discussed to see whether they would continue looking into it.