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We are excited to share that the Board of Trustees has approved the 2026-2027 Academic Calendar!  Following months of hard work by our DEIC, staff surveys, family surveys, and finally a staff & family vote for the final two calendar options, the Board was presented with Calendar A for approval.  To view a printable calendar, visit our calendar page.

Important points to note:

• The first day of school is August 12. The last day of school is May 27.
• This calendar is a hybrid calendar.  Students will not begin having Mondays off until March, with the exception of the holidays which fall on Monday.
• The number of student days has increased from 158 to 165.  This gave us more flexibility and allowed for shorter instruction days (see new start/end times below).
• The instructional day has been shortened by 25 minutes. A slight adjustment was made to each campus start and end time.
• Due to less minutes of instruction each day, there are zero banked days/minutes in this calendar.  This means that if school has to close for any reason, those days/minutes will have to be made up on an alternate day. 
• There are no longer any student intervention days on the calendar.
• Spring Break is the third week in March, to reflect the academic calendar set by NCTC. This was a recent change made by NCTC and differs from the calendars sent out to vote on previously.
• Teachers will have a Friday workday at the end of every grading period. This results in students having four Fridays off, in addition to the Friday holidays.

New Start/End Times
Head Start 7:25 A.M. - 3:05 P.M.
Edison Elementary 7:35 A.M. - 3:15 P.M.
Chalmers Elementary 7:45 A.M. - 3:25 P.M.
Gainesville Intermediate 7:55 A.M. - 3:35 P.M.
Gainesville Junior High 8:05 A.M. - 3:45 P.M.
Gainesville High School 8:15 A.M. - 3:55 P.M.

School counselors from W.E. Chalmers Elementary and Gainesville High School were honored by the Texas School Counseling Association at the annual CREST Awards Banquet held on February 1 at the Fort Worth Convention Center. The CREST program recognizes schools with outstanding counseling programs. Schools receiving CREST awards have demonstrated a commitment using the Texas Model to improve the lives and achievement of students in academic, career, and personal social domains.

Counselors at W.E. Chalmers are Tori Jekel, Mary Newman, Kelly Beyer, and Lynsey Hartman. GHS counselors are Nicole Rich, Jill Brown, Jennifer Medlin, Clark Bawcom, and Lynsey Hartman.

Gainesville ISD hosted the 2026 Cooke County Spelling Bee on Friday, February 6, at the GISD Administration Building. Daanya Yusuf, Chalmers Elementary 4th grade student, was named the Cooke County Bee champion. Daanya will represent Cooke County at the Regional Spelling Bee in Dallas in March.

The top speller from each participating Cooke County school was invited to compete in the Bee. To be eligible, the student must be in 4th-8th grade. Also qualifying and participating in the Cooke County Bee were Cayden Lanham (7th - runner up) and Asanette Manuel (8th) from Gainesville Junior High, Maryam Yusuf (6th) and Patrick Cooper (5th) from Gainesville Intermediate, and Gavin Prude (6th) and Luke Hacker (6th-alternate)from Muenster ISD.