119 school districts get OK to count hours
A total of 119 Arkansas school districts on Wednesday received at least conditional state approval to make a mid-year transition from a minimum 178-day school year calendar to a schedule that counts instructional hours instead.
The Arkansas Board of Education agreed to waive a state law that requires districts to notify the state by July 1 of their desired calendar style for a coming school year. The special afternoon meeting was viewed by dozens of school district leaders via Zoom.
The approval to waive the July 1, 2023, deadline for selecting a calendar for this school year clears the way for districts to avoid going well into the month of June to make up days missed because of last month’s days-long, lingering snowfall.
A transition to an annual calendar built on a minimum of 1,068 instructional hours gives the districts more flexibility in making up missed days when campuses are closed due to inclement weather, widespread illness or utility outages.
The affected districts range from Alma to Yellville-Summit, from Fort Smith to Jonesboro and from Prairie Grove to El Dorado. Among others that requested a calendar change are Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pulaski County Special, Pine Bluff, Conway, Springdale and Fayetteville. Dozens of leaders of the districts were using the Zoom platform during the Education Board meeting in the event the state board members had questions.
The state waiver approvals came in a series of Education Board votes based on whether the requesting districts had
already received approval from their local school boards for the calendar changes. Those that had not yet received local school board approval were approved by the state body conditioned on getting that local approval.
Specifically, the waiver is of a provision in Arkansas Code Annotated 6-10-106.
Stacy Smith, deputy education commissioner, told the state board that in the case of a 178-day calendar, state law permits only the addition of time to a school day in one-hour increments to make up lost days.
On the other hand, an alternate calendar of 1,068 instructional hours or more allows more flexibility, Smith said.
School districts can take into account their hours above and beyond a minimum sixhour school day to get to 1,068 hours, Smith said.
Districts that already have school days of more than six hours or plan to add time to their current six-hour days will meet or exceed the 1,068 hour minimum and will be less likely to have to use the make-up days typically planned for the end of the school year in late May and early June.
Make-up days occur after the annual state-required tests in April and early May.
The 1,068-hour plan enables the districts to “front-load” instruction before state tests — the new Arkansas Teaching and Learning Assessment System — are given in the spring, Smith said.
Education Board Chairman Sarah Moore of Stuttgart said she would like to have a future discussion about increasing the number of school days per year. She said 178 days falls below the 180 school days required by other states.
In the recent past, school districts allowed students and teachers to do school work from their homes when campuses had to be closed for emergencies. Those alternative methods of instruction days, or AMI days, counted toward the traditional 178-day school year.
Because of 2023 changes in state law, school districts this school year didn’t turn to online instruction or packets of paper lessons to offset the missed on-campus instructional days.
The prospect of make-up school days in late May and early June, however, generated concerns among some education leaders about the inability to use remote instruction to compensate for the snow days and to prepare in advance for the state exams that are part of the calculation of state-applied A-to-F letter grades to schools.
The Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education responded to those concerns by extending the state testing window by a week, making the test period April 15 to May 24, and by suggesting the transition to a 1,068-hour calendar.
Arkansas Education Secretary Jacob Oliva earlier this year told school districts at risk of falling short of the legally required minimum 178 days that they were on track to meet the legal requirement of 1,068 instructional hours, which is equal to 178 six-hour instructional days.
“There are many districts across the state that are exceeding the 1,068 hours,” Oliva said late last month, pointing to districts that have scheduled more than six hours of instructional time per school day.
“If they exceed the 1,068 hours, then they have met the requirement,” Oliva said, also noting the need for state Education Board approval.
“We have assured districts that we would support them if they need to change their calendar in the middle of the year,” Oliva said at the time.
A 2017 Arkansas law authorizes districts and schools to allow students and teachers to do their school work at their homes using online lessons or paper packets of lessons on up to 10 days in which campuses have to be closed.
However, the Arkansas LEARNS Act, also known as Act 237 of 2023, required school districts to have at least 178 days or 1,068 hours of student-teacher contact to qualify for teacher salary funds. The LEARNS Act increased the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000 a year, with the state covering the difference.
“Our agency feels very strongly that in-person works best for students,” particularly students who receive special education services, are learning English as a second language, are struggling readers, or are in need of different kinds of therapies, Oliva said last month.