ARKANSAS, USA — With many students already missing four or more days of school because of recent snow and ice, and the option for virtual learning or AMI days not counting towards in-person instruction, school districts are deciding how they will make up that time.
"We've missed a total of seven days due to the snow and winter weather over the last couple of weeks," Huntsville School District's Superintendent Jonathan Warren said.
Warren said figuring out how that lost time will be made up for the 2023-2024 school year has been a challenge.
"We had three days that we could insert in our calendar already that were non-student contact [professional development] days between now and the end of the school year, so we're going to utilize those to have now student contact days," he said.
But as far as the remaining four days, Warren said they're looking into many options. But, nothing is final just yet.
"We can adjust our bell schedule for the remainder of the time and maybe add in minutes, but we haven't processed that yet to be able to say that's what we're doing," Warren said.
Meanwhile, the Fort Smith Public Schools Board of Education decided the next school year will be counted by hours and minutes rather than days, meaning school days will get a little longer.
"We've added those 15 minutes in collaboration with our campus leaders," one board member said. "They felt like having the start time not change and putting that time on the backside of the calendar was most advantageous."
The state of Arkansas requires schools to reach a minimum of 178 in-person instruction days or a total of 1,068 hours.
While the Huntsville School District has briefly talked about counting the school year by time rather than days, Warren said these decisions take time.
"It is a process," Warren said. "And we still have all of February to go for winter, so we're not jumping out and saying this is what we're going to do just yet."
Warren said he hopes to have a solidified schedule for the remaining year going into March.
Fort Smith Public Schools have converted their professional development days on March 15 and April 22 to student days to make up the missed time in their district.
Watch 5NEWS on YouTube.
Download the 5NEWS app on your smartphone:
Stream 5NEWS 24/7 on the 5+ app: How to watch the 5+ app on your streaming device
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email KFSMDigitalTeam@tegna.com and detail which story you're referring to.