(The Center Square) – A legislative panel has floated ideas for how to change the school calendar from the required 180 days a year to a formula based on the number of instructional hours.
Members of the Advisory Committee on Innovations in K-12 Education expressed concerns about how a change would work with local school districts.
School systems are required to be in session for 180 days a year, with each having 6.5 hours of instruction. The school days can be extended by 30 minutes to give “stockpile” days. School systems can earn up to 13 stockpile days a year that can be used to make up days for inclement weather or other times that school have to close.
The committee was formed through House Bill 675. The bill would have required the state Board of Education to allow local school districts to meet the instructional requirement by setting a minimum number of instructional hours.
“We were considering some changes with maybe tying that definition of a day to six and a half hours and so maybe, perhaps, figuring out the total amount needed, 1,170 hours or something,” said Rep. Mark Cochran, R-Englewood, the bill’s sponsor. “Maybe looking at, with parameters, I don’t think you want school districts to have three-day weeks, but perhaps giving a threshold of hours and maybe 6.5 equals a day.”
Rep. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, said school systems should have more flexibility in setting their hours.
“As long as the outcome is positive for the student and continues the state in the trajectory that we are moving in, in terms of student performances and student outcomes, I think how we get there can create a lot of variation,” Watson said. “But at the end of the day, we expect student performance to improve.”
The committee did not make any recommendations. It is required to submit a report by Dec. 31.
House Democrats have complained about Speaker Cameron Sexton’s appointments to the committee. While Lt. Gov. Randy McNalley appointed Democrat Raumesh Akbari of Memphis, Sexton’s appointees were all Republicans.
“Stacking the House delegation to the committee with supporters of private school vouchers, charter schools and failed education policies, to join a statutorily unqualified commissioner would likely prevent the advisory committee from achieving its statutory purpose,” House Democratic Caucus Leader John Ray Clemmons said in a statement.
