The following proposal, to make up the school days lost to the extreme winter weather we have experienced this year, will be presented to the School Board at their meeting on Monday, February18th at 7:30 p.m. This proposal is being published on our website at this time for everyone to review. If approved, the District will notify students, parents, and community members about the adjustments made with this year's school calendar.
PROPOSED
2018-19 School Year Calendar Adjustments
Current Status
As of February 14, 2019 we have had nine (9) school days cancelled. We also have had five (5) days shortened due to late starts or early dismissals. In looking at our remaining school calendar, assuming no other instances of missed time, we calculate being short twenty (20) hours of the state-required minimum student contact time of one thousand-eighty (1080) hours. This leaves us approximately three (3) full school days short of the minimum student attendance requirement.
Other Factors To Consider
There is no easy solution, nor is there a perfect answer in addressing a significant amount of make-up time. Regardless of the make-up plan we implement, there will be some people not in agreement. This is one of those situations in which it will be next to impossible to develop a solution that will make everyone happy. Our focus needs to be on what we believe is in the educational best interests of our students and what we believe is best for the Camanche School District as a whole.
After meeting with various stakeholders in the Camanche School District, the general feeling seems to be that having school for students beyond Friday, June 7th would not be seen as part of a workable solution for many reasons.
While we are on an hour count for our students, our teachers are on a one hundred ninety- two (192) day contract with built in holidays and in-service days. As we start to make significant adjustments to the school calendar, the number of student hours does not tend to match up well with teacher contract days.
Scheduling school for open dates in our current school year calendar is a little more complex than it first appears. We have three (3) dates that are “open” in our remaining schedule. The first date is Monday, February 18th, which leaves too little time to schedule a day of school on that date. The next two available dates are March 8th and April 18th and they present the best opportunity to be used as make-up days. March 8th is the “comp day” after parent-teacher conferences and April 18th is the first day of Spring Break. The remaining non-school days on this year’s school calendar (April 19th, April 22nd, & May 27th) are contractual holidays.
We are still only in the middle of February. We could very well have to deal with additional weather-related school closures. A plan that looks good during the middle of February, may not look so good in April. We look to address this concern in our plan.
Proposed Solution
A combination of several uses of time would seem to be the best solution for Camanche at this time. I apologize for the length of this explanation, but I believe this illustrates how complex this plan can become when you have a significant number of school hours/days to make-up and other factors to consider.
- As of today’s date, regular school days would be scheduled to be held on March 8th, April 18th, and June 3rd to make-up the minimum state-required hours.
- If additional school make-up days are needed they would be added in June starting on June 4th.
- If we reach a point that June 7th is scheduled and more make-up hours are needed; specifically identified Wednesday early out days would be converted to full school days to make up the necessary time. This should allow us to be somewhat confident in saying that the last day of school for students would be no later than Friday, June 7th. There is no current intent to extend the length of individual school days.
- Graduation for the “Class of 2019” will occur as scheduled on May 26th. The last day of classes for graduating seniors would be scheduled for Wednesday, May 22nd. This complies with state requirements and Board Policy 601.2 which states in part, “The Board may also excuse graduating seniors from making up days missed due to inclement weather if the student has met the school district’s graduation requirements.”
- Teachers would be allowed some flexibility in making up their nine (9) contract days. Three (3) of these days would be accounted for with school being held on March 8th, April 18th, & June 3rd. Definitely one (1), possibly two (2) days would be used for districtwide teacher professional learning days. The parent/teacher “comp day,” originally scheduled for March 8th, would be placed at the end of the school year. Remaining days would be teacher contract flex days, with each teacher scheduling current non-contract days as contract make-up days with their principal. These days would consist of collaborative team work, curriculum planning, or other professional activities as approved by the administration. The first possible day this could happen would be February 18th and the teachers would need to complete their flex days by August 1, 2019.