BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge School Board approved a new plan for the 2021-2022 academic calendar after a proposal to begin classes in July was met with heavy pushback from teachers.

The plan presented by Superintendent Dr. Sito Narcisse will bring teachers back Aug. 2 and students back Aug. 11. The board voted 7-2 on Thursday evening to approve the plan, with Connie Bernard and Dawn Collins voting against it.

The board only considered one of the four newly proposed plans that were unveiled this past week. That plan will be further revised from its previous version.

Here are the changes in the modified option 1 calendar, EBR schools is presenting to the School board:

Teachers back August 2nd
Students back August 11
7 professional development days
No early release days
Last day for students May 20th
Last day for teachers the 23rd pic.twitter.com/bjvUNPpqnK

— Nadeen Abusada (@NadeenAbusada) April 22, 2021

Some of the community's teachers, parents, and even students told Narcisse they weren't comfortable with the idea of students returning to in-person classes at the end of July and teachers making their way back to campus even earlier, by July 19.

Dr. Narcisse and other school officials listened to these concerns, and decided against the July 19 return date.

While some members of the community appeared relieved to see education leaders take their observations into consideration, others remained concerned.

"I just don't understand why we have to go through all of this to get it to a point where the teachers are actually being heard," said Will MacNaughton, a frustrated parent.

Instead of July, teachers are now expected to return to campus Aug. 2 and students will likely return to school one week later.

Other changes to the new school year will likely include a shift in Spring Break, moving it from the week after Easter Sunday to the week before.

In addition to this, the school year has been extended by eight days. But this won't require students to spend eight consecutive days in class at the end of the school year. Instead, the eight days will be distributed throughout the calendar year.

In regards to that calendar year, all key dates comprising the upcoming school year need to be chosen and voted on by the EBR School Board.