The Beauregard Parish School Board unanimously approved the 2025-26 four-day and five-day hybrid calendars at the board meeting last Thursday.

Last year, BPSB introduced a new five-day hybrid calendar for the district’s five-day campuses; Schools in Merryville and Singer have operated on a four-day schedule for nearly three decades.

Calendar discussions took place at the committee meeting Monday, March 10. The board and administration talked at length about three calendar variations. One of the focuses this year was to eliminate three-day weeks on the hybrid calendar by scheduling school on Fridays during weeks where students are off on Mondays.

Superintendent Larry Hollie also requested that the board consider adding more weather days to the 2025-26 calendars to make them more flexible. He noted that virtual days “just do not work” for BPSB, as “half of them [teachers] do what they’re supposed to do, and the other half don’t.”

The calendar committee approved the “A” version, which board member Kristi Neely, District 2, said made the four-day and five-day hybrid calendars “basically identical” except for August, September and October and the Mardi Gras holiday.

The board approved this calendar on Thursday, but not without discussion. Board member Jared Kibodeaux, District 4A, suggested tabling the vote because the board received additional notes and calendar variations from some BPSB campuses after the committee meeting.

“There’s a lot of good information in it, and I think we at least owe them and ourselves a little extra time to look at those.”

Not every board member agreed. Board member David Shirley, District 3E, questioned why some schools waited so long to provide input.

“I don’t understand why the people who are sending this stuff now have waited until now. … Our teachers know that our calendars are being looked at in February and March.”

Calendar discussions began in January. Board member Garrett Greene, District 3B, said while the board should consider all perspectives, they ultimately will not be able to find a solution that makes everyone happy.

“I feel like we have solicited input. I feel like we have discussed at length, varying viewpoints and try to take all of those into consideration,” he said. “I don’t know if we could ever come up with a perfect product that’s going to please everybody.”