School boards to discuss makeup days
Four Yuma school districts will close again Wednesday as two Yuma County school district governing boards plan to meet today to discuss options for making up missed classroom instruction time.
Only the Crane governing board is slated to take action. District One’s board plans only to discuss the district’s options, according to information provided with their agendas.
Yuma Union also has a board meeting Wednesday evening, but the topic of makeup days is not on its agenda, said Communications Director Eric Patten.
Gadsden, Somerton, Yuma Union High School District and Yuma Elementary School District One again closed their campuses due to a shortage of personnel to safely monitor classrooms. Gadsden, Somerton and District One will continue to serve both breakfast and lunch at their campuses.
Every school district that was closed for the education funding strike must apply
to the Arizona Department of Education for permission to change their school calendars, according to a memo from Deputy Associate Superintendent of School Finance Lyle Friesen that was issued April 25. And if they don’t have a policy on school closures, their boards must make one.
District One’s governing board will meet at 8 a.m. Wednesday at 450 W. 6th St., to conduct some routine business it needs to take care of, such as approving field trips, said Alice Quintero, the superintendent’s executive administrative assistant.
The meeting will adjourn into a study session in which the board plans to discuss the ADE memo on how districts can handle school closures.
The Crane School District is also holding a special meeting at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Crane District Services Center, 930 Avenue C (in front of Great Beginnings Preschool), to discuss and take action on “makeup” days at Ronald Reagan Elementary school.
According to material included with the Crane agenda, “insufficient site and district staffing” resulted in the school being closed both April 26 and April 27. Background information provided with the agenda noted that staff were surveyed to determine which two days they would “like considered as the revised instructional days.”
“To best accommodate this, the district identified the following 5 days as options: Saturday, May 5, 2018; Saturday, May 12, 2018; Saturday, May 19, 2018; Friday, June 1, 2018; and Monday, June 4, 2018. The administration will provide the results of the survey at the board meeting.”
The state legislature sets minimum instructional hours for each grade level. However, when the state legislature changed the number of school days required back in the early 2000s to 180 days, they did not change the required number of hours, Somerton Superintendent Laura Noel explained.
The National Center for Education Statistics lists Arizona’s hourly requirements as thus:
Kindergarten = 356; Grades 1-3 = 712; Grades 4-6 = 890; Grades 7-8 = 1,000; and Grades 9-12 = 720 hours (students must enroll in at least four subjects to be considered a full-time equivalent).
According to the ADE memo, “Each student’s scheduled instructional time must meet the hourly requirements listed above in order for the student to be funded as a full-time student.”
The memo noted that if schools have “equal or extra” instructional time built into the day for all students, “excess hours may offset lost instructional time scheduled for the students on unplanned school closure days.”
If schools do not meet the required minimum amount of instructional time, they will see a reduction in “FullTime Equivalency (‘FTE’) for funding purposes,” the memo stated.
The memo says that if excess scheduled time doesn’t cover the lost instructional time, then the districts must make that up to reach the minimum required hours. The state suggested three options: 1) increasing instructional time on presently scheduled days; 2) adding instructional days or 3) a combination of both. Districts were also given the option of reviewing each child’s instructional time and subjects and reducing the reported FTE as necessary.
Yuma County Superintendent of Schools Tom Tyree said the issue of “making up time” has been confusing not only for local districts, but also on the state level as well.
“That’s been kind of a common question I’ve been sort of getting or hearing,” he said.
Districts might be hesitant to relay information to the public because of varying opinions on what’s what, Tyree explained.
“I’ve already seen some examples where the state department of education has issued one interpretation on something and then had to walk it back because an attorney for a school district said, ‘no that’s not what the statute really says.’”
Noel said in an email to the Sun that some districts throughout the state may have up to five days of “excess time,” depending on their policies. Each district’s different, though, she noted.
“In Somerton, Tuesday marks our fourth day closed. There are only three Saturdays before our last day of calendared school, which is May 25,” she wrote. “Our teacher contracts state they end on May 25. We are currently seeking information about what we can do that is legal and benefits our students. Each day we are out makes the problem larger and therefore harder to solve.”
Teachers and other education supporters met near the Big Curve on Tuesday morning, offering to answer questions from the public.
Gila Ridge High School teacher and coach Joe Daily and Ron Watson educator Pat Miller said Tuesday morning that they hoped the legislature would come to a consensus on a bill that would give education funding a boost.
“And we want them to do it in a timely manner,” Daily said. “We do not want to be out of the classrooms any longer. I want to be back right now.”
Yuma County’s #RedForEd contingent plans a final day of rallying Wednesday with plans to line Main Street in Somerton in the morning and 8th Street and Avenue A in Yuma around 10:30 (or Fortuna and South Frontage Road in the Foothills). A rally is planned for Joe Orduno Park in San Luis starting at 5 p.m.