Farmington to seek early start date for 2024-25 school year

FARMINGTON — The School Board on Monday unanimously approved a resolution authorizing Superintendent Jon Laffoon to submit a request for an Act 1240 waiver for an early start date for the 2024-25 school year.

Arkansas law says the first day of school shall be on or after the Monday of the week in which Aug. 19 falls. Act 1240 of 2015 allows districts to seek waivers of state laws and rules.

The resolution asks for a waiver to allow the district to start school the week of Aug. 12.

Laffoon said the Northwest Education Service Cooperative is applying for the waiver on behalf of its 17 school districts, but districts also are individually applying for the waiver.

The district surveyed the community and staff about an early start date, and results showed 56% of the community preferred a start date during the week of Aug. 19-23 and 44% preferred the early start date.

For staff, 50.7% preferred a start date during the week of Aug. 19-23 and 49.3% preferred an early start date.

The district received 506 total responses for the survey — 303 community members and 203 staff members.

The waiver request says an early start date would allow both semesters to be more evenly divided, give a greater assurance that school will end in late May and not extend into June and provide more days of instruction before spring testing, resulting in students being better prepared for their tests.

The school year would remain the same, but an early start date would give the school more flexibility with its calendar, the request says.