Weather has played such havoc on the school year in Arkansas that administrators, teachers and parents are scrambling to make up time lost in order to satisfy the minimum 178 days in session required by Arkansas Nonpublic School Accrediting Association.
“It’s been a real challenge,” said Karla Thielemeier, principal of St. Vincent de Paul School in Rogers. “Our staff has really had to pull together as a team.”
The school has missed a whopping 13 days because of inclement weather, 10 of which the faculty and staff have or will reclaim through various means. These include opening school on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Presidents Day and Good Friday.
Because a full day of instruction is six hours, not including lunch and recess, some schools are making up the missed days by extending the school day.
In Rogers an extra 60 minutes has been tacked on to 12 school days in the spring.
In addition, Thielemeier exercised her option to build in a snow day when she laid out the calendar at the start of the year. Finally, the last day of school was pushed from May 23 to May 30.
“We’ve applied to ANSAA for a waiver of the remaining three days,” she said. That decision is expected during the association’s board meeting the first week of April.
St. Paul School in Pocahontas was faced with making up eight school days. Unlike Rogers, the school calendar didn’t include any inclement weather days, but Principal Maria Dickson took full advantage of three cyber days, which were piloted by several Arkansas Catholic schools this year. During cyber days, students are given assignments to complete while home on snow days to help them stay abreast of their studies.
In addition, the school will operate for an extra hour March 31 to April 10 and also will be open on Good Friday. The last day of school will be May 23, three days later than originally scheduled.
As in Rogers, St. Paul School isn’t infringing on spring break, something to which more area public schools are having to resort in order to make up lost time. Thielemeier said leaving spring break intact was a matter of real-world practicality.
“In our population we have a lot of families who are from outside the country, and many of them have already made travel plans,” she said. “As a staff we realized that we could’ve opened and those kids wouldn’t be here anyway.”
Dickson agreed, saying the same was true for tacking on days after Memorial Day. She said many parents already have family vacation plans in place and, therefore, are very supportive of any alternative that doesn’t cut into June. A longer school day was not a problem for many parents.
“Our parents are wonderful, and many of them are already looking for childcare options after school as it is,” Dickson said. “We’ve had no negative feedback from our parents, in fact, they’ve pretty much been like, ‘Do whatever you can not to add days.’”
Like Rogers, St. Joseph School in Fayetteville also lost 13 days to the weather after not using a single snow day the previous two years and a variety of contingency measures have been implemented to help make up the time.
Principal Marcia Diamond said three cyber days were used and the last day of school was moved from May 30 to June 6. The school day will be extended for one hour on six upcoming days and school was in session on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day and one parent teacher conference day. They are also opening on Good Friday, while taking steps to help ensure the religious significance of this day does not get lost.
“Good Friday, our fifth graders will present Living Stations of the Cross to the school and parish, which will be a beautiful way for all our students to participate in a religious experience that day,” she said.
The school did not apply for the ANSAA waiver and has been up-front with parents since the school year started about the administration’s commitment to fulfill the 178 days prescribed by the accrediting body. She said parents have remained positive, recognizing missing that many days — more than double that of any single year in Diamond’s 15 years in education, both here and in Maine — is stressful on everybody.
St. Mary School in Paragould missed 10 days, three of which they reclaimed via cyber days. Principal Sharon Warren scheduled two snow days, school was in session on Presidents Day and will be open on Good Friday. At least one of the remaining days was made up by extending the school day by an hour for six days as a test. If that goes well, she plans to bring that timetable back for six days in April and six days in May to complete the missing time.
“If we get too many complaints from parents, we will add it to the end of the year,” she said. “But as of now, the vast majority of comments we have received have been positive which is good because the quality of instruction is much better now than in days tacked onto the end of the year. Once the weather warms up, it just becomes very, very difficult.”
Warren said for as difficult as the weather interruptions have been for students and parents to absorb, she reserves her highest praise for her staff making the best of less-and-ideal conditions.
“My staff has been outstanding,” she said. “When we had cyber days, some of them had to text assignments to families who had really slow internet. When we extended hours, some kids had to be dismissed for doctor and dentist appointments requiring make-up work and extra time grading papers.”
