Austin Public Schools could continue looking at potential changes to its calendar, but any firm decisions or changes are months — if not years — away.

A group of about 50 community members — including parents, teachers, students, school-board members and others — have researched different options for a school’s yearly calendar, as well as other options, such as start time, that could help students. Now on Jan. 12, 2105, the group is set to recommend to the Austin Public Schools Board that the district and the community continue researching possible calendar options.

The group met for the last time Monday afternoon at I.J. Holton Intermediate School to discuss the members’ research and the recommendation they plan to make to the Austin Public Schools Board in January.

“[We’re] looking at options that might be best for our students, and that’s really what the group came into, is that essential question, what are the best options for our students here at Austin Public Schools and just to research that,” said Jill Rollie, one of two group leaders for the school calendar committee, and also a teacher at Ellis Middle School.

After Sumner Elementary School started its 45/15 calendar, which district leaders have hailed as successful, community members started wondering whether the district should look at other options for the district as a whole.

“We’re just looking at research to see what’s going to best serve our students in Austin, and then make a recommendation to the board for further investigation,” Rollie said.

Brandon Button, a group leader and teacher at I.J. Holton Intermediate School, said the group focused on two broad points of research.

“We saw two big trends, and one of them was a look at some kind of a balanced or modified calendar, and the other was some kind of a modification to the instructional day,” Button said.

The group specifically looked at changing the start time of classes to 8:30 a.m. or later, while maintaining the school day’s minutes, which would push the end time later. The group also researched a balanced calendar, which was defined as “a year calendar with breaks no longer than eight weeks long.”

After the committee’s recommendation, it will ultimately be up to the board to decide whether to move forward with more research. If it decides to, more committees will likely discuss what calendar and time options could look like in Austin.

“From our understanding, if it’s approved by the school board, then there’d be another committee formed,” Button said. “The next one would be specific to implementation to Austin schools: Will it work for 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.

Superintendent David Krenz said even if the board eventually approved a change for the district’s calendar or start time down the road, such changes probably wouldn’t be implemented for at least two years.

The group of volunteers first met last April, meeting twice a month except for a break during summer, and held its last meeting Monday. 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 continued.

“They were really devoted,” Button said. “Everyone was finding information that always kind of seemed to align.”

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 or not.

“It’s a pretty extensive process,” Krenz said.

Krenz pointed out the group was not appointed by the school district.

“This is not something driven by the school district,” he said. “It came about because parents, students, community members and teachers asked that we look at it.”

The board will hear the recommendation at the boards’ regularly scheduled meeting Jan. 12, 2015, at the City Council Chambers.