The ISD 166 school board held a special meeting on the morning of Friday, January 31, 2014 to discuss what to do about making up for time missed due to the unusually high number of winter-related school closings for the district so far this year. Students have lost just over six instructional days already this school year. The board had originally scheduled 1,101 instructional hours for the year and was currently on pace to achieve a total of 1,066 hours barring any further weather-related absences. The state requires schools to have a minimum of 1,020 instructional hours per year. In addition teachers have had four days where they have not had to report for work. Superintendent Beth Schwarz presented a few recommendations to the board including holding classes on February 14, which had been previously scheduled as a day that classes would not be held.
A main concern was that the instructional time be made up prior to the first week of April when the majority of final testing would begin.
Peter James representing Great Expectations School made a brief presentation and said that they had adopted the same calendar as ISD 166. He said he realizes there may be contractual obligations involved that may affect the outcome of the board’s discussion. He said there are three key points he would like to see addressed, including lost instructional time, the disruption of instructional continuity and that the schools may still face additional time off.
“The State of Minnesota has said there will be no penalty because of extreme weather; no loss of funding for not making up days,” said Schwarz. “That said, as your superintendent, I’m very concerned regarding the education of our children. Like Mr. James, I’m concerned regarding the loss of instructional time.”
Chris Goettl spoke during the community comments portion of the meeting stating that he was okay with making up the days but was concerned with the short notice given for holding classes on February 14. He also said that it might be good in the future to not have scheduled time off during “nicer” times of the year and saving that time to offset weather closings in the winter.
Schwarz said, “I realize February 14 is short notice but we have limited choices.”
She added that for future years it has already been decided to set certain days as potential make up days in the case of days missed due to bad weather.
To add to the mix, the faculty is required to complete a certain amount of Professional Learning Communities (PLC) hours in order for Q Comp funds from the state to be paid to the school. Q Comp is strictly state funded and yielded $70,000 to the school this year. In order to receive the funding the faculty must complete at least 90 minutes of PLC time every two weeks and this time cannot be held during student instructional times. During PLC, teachers exchange ideas on technology in the classroom, discipline issues and more. They develop strategies and evaluate how things worked at subsequent PLC sessions. The goal of PLC and Q Comp is to decrease the achievement gap among students and try to improve test scores.
With the change in the school calendar, teachers may have to meet for PLCs after school or on a scheduled vacation day, such as President’s Day, February 17.
Schwarz stressed that missing six days is different for students who struggle academically than those who are honor roll students. She added that the curriculum for some classes, such as the College in the Schools courses or chemistry and physics, is more difficult to modify for lost instructional time.
A motion was made by board member Deb White, seconded by Sissy Lunde and was unanimously approved by the three board members present “to make up instructional time lost related to weather closings on February 14 and March 14.” Board member Ed Bolstad was absent from the meeting.
Discussion involved possibly increasing the number of days to make up to three days rather than just two. Schwarz stated that would probably receive a mixed reaction from the faculty. White emphasized that the board needs to be “making certain we provide the best education for students.”
Another concern is the possibility of more weather related time off. Schwarz said her “Farmer’s Almanac gut feeling” tells her that when the weather warms, there will be more snow and the potential for more cancellations in February and March. Anderson said, “None of us has a crystal ball.”
A second motion was made by Chair Jeanne Anderson and also unanimously approved that stated that if the school has additional closings between February 1 and March 21, the dates of February 28, April 11 and/or April 25 will be instructional days as deemed necessary by the superintendent and the board chair, with a 10 school day notice.
Schwarz said the school had been receiving a lot of questions regarding graduation, which is scheduled for Saturday, May 31, at 3 p.m.. All present agreed that they would not be affecting when graduation will take place.
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