- October 14, 2024
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The Flagler County School District lost five school days due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, but it is adding just one makeup date according to a revised instructional calendar proposed by the the district’s calendar committee.
The one added instructional day was Monday, Oct. 14, the students’ first day back to school after school was canceled Oct. 9-11 last week due to Hurricane Milton. Originally, Oct. 14 was to be a teacher workday, but it was switched to a regular instructional day after two days were lost on Sept. 26-27 due to Hurricane Helene.
Louise Bossardet, Flagler Schools’ director of Information Systems, presented the proposed changes to the School Board at an information workshop on Oct. 14. The board is expected to formally approve the changes at its Nov. 19 business meeting, which will be the first meeting for new board members Lauren Ramirez and Janie Ruddy.
The school year will end on May 29 as originally scheduled, but the number of instructional days will be reduced from 179 to 175. Having four fewer days is acceptable, Bossardet said, because the district will still meet the state’s required instructional minutes with other changes made to the calendar.
State statute requires districts to have 180 instructional days or the equivalent in instructional time. Flagler Schools has had 179-day instructional calendars for the past six to eight years, Bossardet said.
School districts are required to have a total of 900 hours of instructional time throughout the year for grades 4-12 and 720 hours for K-3.
The committee was able to reach the requirement without extending the school year or shortening the Thanksgiving, winter or spring breaks.
We know the reality is that adding instructional minutes here and there throughout the year isn’t going to give (teachers) the instructional time back they’re going to lose, so we’ll be sacrificing those four days.
— LOUISE BOSSARDET
Committee members decided not to extend the school year beyond May 29 because assessments usually close on May 30, so they didn’t think an extension would have a positive instructional impact on the students, Bossardet said.
The quarter and semester periods were adjusted to reach statutory requirements. The first quarter had been scheduled to end on Friday, Oct. 11, but the committee did not want to end the quarter on a day that students would not be in school so it extended the quarter to Oct. 18. Teachers also requested time to complete some planned assessments that were scheduled for Oct. 9, Bossardet said.
The first semester will no longer end on Dec. 20, the final day before spring break. Instead, to restore the semester to the 85 days the district needs to meet the instructional requirement for semester-long courses, the first semester will now end on Jan. 10, a week after students return to school.
Bossardet said the district normally prefers to end the semester by winter break to align with articulation agreements with local colleges.
The third quarter will now start on Jan. 13 and will have four fewer instructional days than originally scheduled, reducing the second semester from 94 to 90 days. The fourth quarter will remain the same.
The biggest con in the adjusted calendar, Bossardet said, is “it reduces the total number of instructional days which teachers won’t get back. We know the reality is that adding instructional minutes here and there throughout the year isn’t going to give them the instructional time back they’re going to lose, so we’ll be sacrificing those four days.”
The changes also stretch the calendar to the limit. If one more day of school is canceled during the first semester, the Jan. 6 teacher workday would become a regular school day. Teacher workdays are important, Bossardet said, and the district does not want take a second workday away. If more than one day is canceled in the next month, then makeup days would have to come out of the weeklong Thanksgiving break.
