PEA RIDGE — Pea Ridge school students have missed 11 days of school due to snow. Now, school officials have to decide where to add those days back into the calendar. The state mandates 178 days of “student contact” days.
The state mandate also requires a minimum of 40 and maximum of 50 days per quarter.
Since all of the snow days were in the third quarter (as is spring break), the end of the quarter had to be adjusted.
At Monday night’s School Board meeting, board members approved making March 15, previously a no-student day reserved for parent/teacher conferences, as a student teaching day. The first two days previously scheduled for spring break, Monday and Tuesday, March 21-22, will be used to make up snow days, aswill May 31 and June 1-6.
Parent-teacher conferences will be held April 5 and 7 from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m.
“Well, the weather has kind of thrown us a few curve balls,” Bonnie Fulmer, curriculum coordinator said. Fulmer and principals said teachers were concerned about preparing for testing and many had expressed willingness to give up all of spring break instead of adding snow days to the end of the calendar.
“We have high stakes testing ... it’s kind of a difficult decision. We’d like to have some input from the board,” Fulmer said.
“Grade 11 literacy testing is the second week in March. All our other high stakes testing comesafter spring break.”
“Instruction is very difficult after Memorial Day,” Rick Neal, high school principal, said. “Most of my staff is involved in either AP (advanced placement) testing or high stakes testing. They’re getting ready for tests. That’s why they brought the proposal to me.”
The board approved the snow changing March 15 to a student day and approved taking the other recommendations to the Personnel Policy Committee for approval to determine whether to take the remaining snow days from spring break or the end of the year.
In other business, the board:
◊Approved extending the contracts for the curriculum coordinator and four principals for one year;
◊Approved superintendent Mike Van Dyke’s recommendation to hire Baldwin & Shell as construction manager for renovation and construction of the Intermediate School, as well as approved the plans as presented for that campus.
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“The weather has kind of thrown us a few curve balls.”
Bonnie Fulmer Curriculum coordinator
News, Pages 1 on 02/16/2011