The Duncan Banner

Education

February 20, 2010

Hourly decision reduces need for make up days

Derrick Miller

DUNCAN — Despite missing days of class, some Stephens County students won’t have to make up for those days.

Many school districts in Stephens County have taken advantage of a bill passed by the Oklahoma State Board of Education, which gave districts the option of either defining a school year as 180 days or 1,080 hours. Some districts have chosen to go with the hours because it provides more flexibility.

Among the districts who chose to define a school year by hours were Comanche, Duncan and Marlow.

Some districts won’t have to worry about making up the missed days because of this decision because they have gone above the minimum hours. But there’s only so much time the districts can absorb before any additional days missed because of weather or power outages result in students and teachers having to make the days up.

Comanche Superintendent Terry Davidson said the Comanche School District wasn’t affected by the power outages as much as many other districts. The district lost only about 20 hours of instructional time, but the school has more than 60 hours above the 1,080 determined by the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

“We’re well beyond the 1,080 hours,” Davidson said.

The 1,080 hours is based on a 180 days consisting of six hours of instructional time. But school districts, like Comanche, have extended days, which move beyond the six hours per day of instructional time.

“We’ve always gone the extra hours,” Davidson said. “We’ve always felt like we needed to go extra hours because it works better with our schedule.

“It’s about the number of instructional hours. The number of days is not as critical.”

These aren’t the only three schools using the hourly-based calendar to their advantage.

Bray-Doyle Public School District is taking a different approach than other districts who went without power for an extended period.

Because of the hourly-calendar, the school district will offset the recent class cancellations by extending the school day by 25 minutes. This began Monday.

Classes start at 8:20 a.m. as usual but aren’t letting out until 3:25 p.m. These longer days will help prevent the district from having to make up days or altering the school calendar.

Central High School District also has a calendar based on hours, but because the district missed five days as a result of the power outage, the district will be making up four days.

The students in Central High Public Schools will have to attend classes Friday, Feb. 26, March 5 and March 26. The district hasn’t had classes on Fridays, but will use four Fridays to ensure the students get their instructional hours.

When Empire Public Schools made its calendar for the 2009-10 school year, the district included built in snow days, much like many other school districts.

This means the school calendar won’t have to be changed to add additional days. Instead, students will go to school on days set aside as possible days off if inclement weather didn’t occur.

Velma-Alma Public School District missed two days of classes because of the power outages. The Velma-Alma Board of Education will make a decision on what to do about the missed days at the regular meeting in March.



— Derrick Miller is a reporter for The Duncan Banner. He can be reached at 580-255-5354, Ext. 160, or via e-mail at derrick.miller@duncanbanner.com.

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