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“My concern, of course, is that we’re not even through the first quarter and we’ve experienced so many missed days of school due to the hurricane,” said Superintendent Ralph Napolitano.
The district scheduled 186 total school days before the year started and would need to keep at least 180 days to remain in compliance with state regulations.
“Since we’ve missed five days, that’s brought the total down from 186 to 181,” Napolitano said. “We’re in compliance, but again, it’s only November. In a month or two from now, we might not be compliant. So I would remind the parents that they have to keep track of days missed.”
Despite staying above the minimum 180, Napolitano said the calendar was shifted around to give teachers and students more time to understand the new curriculum and common core standards that were instituted this year.
“There are so many things that are going on and so many changes, we have to acquaint the teachers with these things and give them the time they need to produce the things that are being required or asked of them,” Napolitano said.
Superintendent’s conference days factor into the district’s number of school days despite not being instructional days for students. To give the students more instructional days, Nov. 6 and Feb. 15 were changed from superintendent’s days.
The district also decided to replace scheduled midterm dates between Jan. 22 and Jan. 25 with instructional days.
“We decided that the midterms in January, those days would not be essential to giving exams, but rather providing instruction,” Napolitano said. “So, there are four instructional days that have been replaced on the high school level from exams."
If the district loses two more school days and falls under the required 180, it would make up for the losses by using scheduled vacation days. Days would be taken from spring recess, beginning with the first day on March 25 and continuing in order to March 29.
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