Dr. Jorgensen's Highland Highlights - January 25, 2018
January 25, 2019
The weather the last couple of weeks in January has renewed the discussion of what constitutes a “school day.” We have been fortunate in the last four years in terms of very few school cancellations. This year is reminding me of 2009-2010. That was a year where most school districts had 10 or more cancellations during the school year. It was the first time I can remember when the Governor allowed schools to add time on to the school day to make up time rather than having to add days to the schedule, extending until the middle of June. This article will review the history of what makes a school day and what the legal requirements are.
My first year as a superintendent was 1998-1999. At that time, the rule was rather simple. Iowa schools were required to meet 180 days. There were no restrictions on how long a day was. Schools had to submit a calendar to the Iowa Department of Education that showed 180 days. It was common for schools to have 1:00 dismissals prior to holidays or at the end of a grading period. Most schools did professional development as full day in-service and the same was true with Parent-Teacher conferences. In the case of weather, as long as the buses ran, it counted as a school day. I remember some districts that picked up kids in the morning and then turned around and took them back home because of weather concerns and counted it as a day.
Sometime in the mid 2000’s the Iowa Department of Education allowed parent-teacher conference time to be counted towards the 180 day schedule. For most districts, that meant 178 days of instruction and 2 days equivalent for Parent-Teacher Conferences. The Department of Education also began to define a school day of 6 hours of instruction, meaning that lunchtime did not count. The 1:00 dismissal was no longer legal for a school day. The exception was for weather related and health reasons. Early dismissals or late start due to weather still counted towards a school day.
Late in the 2000’s, there were concerns being raised by Iowa patrons over the number of days in the fall that school districts were losing due to early release for heat. Then the 2009-2010 school year followed, where schools were losing massive amounts of time due to an awful winter. I know that my district cancelled an unprecedented 14 days of schools, not counting early dismissals and late starts due to poor road conditions. It was a poor winter throughout the Midwest and I remember governors in Minnesota and other states forgiving schools from having to make up days. This did not happen in Iowa. However, a decision to allow schools to add time onto their school day during the spring to make up for days allowed flexibility that we did not have before. That was a first in the state of Iowa.
Shortly after that, the 1080 hours rule passed the Iowa legislature. When this rule was passed, schools no longer were required to meet 180 days, instead they were required to have 1080 hours of instructional time. If you figure 1080 hours and divided by 6 hours, you still come up with 180 days. However, most school districts were putting in more than 6 hours of instruction on most school days. They were able to build up and bank time. This new rule led to most districts having regular early-out time for Professional Development rather than full days. It also led to the 4-day week implemented by WACO.
Prior to the 2018-2019 school year, Highland extended their school day by 15 minutes. That is an additional 2,670 minutes or 44.5 hours, or 7.4 days. It is hard to believe how significant 15 minutes can be. It does give the district more flexibility on whether or not to make up days. I have no idea what the Highland Board will decide in terms of making up time, but they will have some options. Most teachers and support staff contract based on days, so to forgive days means less pay for those who work on an hourly basis. That certainly needs to be a consideration.
Thus far, 2018-2019 appears to be one of the worse winters in recent years as far as school cancellations. The rules on what constitutes a school day and what has to be made-up has evolved over the last three decades, giving the schools more flexibility on how to deal with time missed.
