Northwest Arkansas schools plan for make up days

Students in Northwest Arkansas will have to make up at least four days of school this year because of recent snow and ice.

Thursday marked four days of missed classes for Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville school districts, according to officials. Students in the Fayetteville School District have missed five days.

All four districts have make-up days built into their calendars, according to officials. Arkansas school districts must have 178 school days each school year, said Alan Wilbourn, communications director for the Fayetteville School District. District officials can use teacher inservice days, holidays, Saturdays, spring break and days added to the end of the school year for make-up days.

The Fayetteville School District has eight built in make-up days, two of which can't be used because they were in January, Wilbourn said. There are two in May and four in June. Officials will add make-up days to the end of the school year if the district accumulates more snow days than they have scheduled make-up days.

The Springdale School District has five make-up days built into its calendar, said Jared Cleveland, deputy superintendent for personnel. Those days are added to the end of the school year. With four missed days, students will have their last day of classes June 1.

After those five days are used, officials can use professional development days, two Saturdays and the first two days of spring break, Cleveland said. The Saturdays and professional development days were in January and February and can no longer be used. Any additional needed make-up days after these options are again added to the end of the school year.

"If we don't miss another day, we're in great shape," he said.

The Rogers School District also has scheduled make-up days, said Jim White, chief operations officer. The days differ between the traditional calendar and continuous learning calendar.

The calendar for traditional schools shows make-up days to cover the first six inclement weather days. Students would go to school on professional development days, then June 3, then two Saturdays and then the first two days of Spring break, in that order.

More make-up days will be added to the end of the school year if students at the traditional schedule schools miss more than 13 school days, White said.

Bentonville has 10 built-in make-up days, some of which already have passed, said Michael Poore, superintendent. Make-up days are being added to the end of the school year. He said the district could also appeal to the Arkansas Department of Education if necessary.

White said Rogers will use its scheduled make-up days and add days to the end of the school year before looking at other options.

Officials might, however, use a new law to make up days one hour at a time if they miss a lot of days.

Act 286 took effect Feb. 27 and states, "If a superintendent cancels a regularly scheduled school day due to exceptional or emergency circumstances such as a contagious disease outbreak, inclement weather, or other acts of God, the superintendent can make up missed school days by adding time to the beginning or ending of a regular school day for a minimum of sixty (60) minutes."

Cleveland said it's too early to tell how the new law will impact school districts. However, it's good for districts to have options and flexibility, he said. Wilbourn said the downside to adding an hour to the end of the school day would be students going home from school later.

Cleveland and Poore said they're waiting on information from the Arkansas Department of Education on their interpretation of the law and how it should be implemented before they do anything with it. Wilbourn said Fayetteville officials are discussing the use of the law.

NW News on 03/06/2015