Springdale schedules makeup days

SPRINGDALE — Superintendent Jared Cleveland said Friday that the Springdale School District will use Feb. 2 and Feb. 19 as student instruction days to make up for days lost to bad weather, according to a district news release.

Springdale already has lost five days because of snow and ice. With two months of winter left, more bad weather could hit again, meaning the possibility of more school closings.

The School Board voted 4-0 at a special meeting Wednesday to give Cleveland the discretion to alter the academic calendar to schedule a makeup of the lost instruction days.

Factors considered in the decision to revise the calendar were remaining teacher professional development and/or flex days, conducting school on select Saturdays or using the first two days of spring break, according to the news release.

Feb. 2, a Friday, was originally a professional development day. Feb. 19, a Monday that’s also Presidents Day, was originally a flex day, according to the news release. A flex day is one in which students are off and teachers may also take as a vacation day if they already have done their required professional development hours for the year, according to Trent Jones, district communications director.

The school district plans to make up its other three snow days at the end of the school year: May 28-30, the first three days after Memorial Day, Jones said.

The LEARNS Act requires public school districts to have 178 days (or 1,068 hours) of in-person, on-site learning to receive funding for the state’s $50,000 minimum teacher salaries. Online education days, also known as alternative methods of instruction, don’t count toward the 178-day requirement under LEARNS.

Districts face tacking on snow days at the end of the school year after state standardized tests in the spring. That means fewer instruction days before the tests.