With snow days climbing toward the double digits, area superintendents are deciding how long students will need to stay in school after Frosty has melted.

As of Tuesday, Albert Lea Area Schools has had students stay home due to weather for eight days.

How many days students do not attend school matters to the state, which requires by statue a certain amount of instruction days — 165 — for students in first grade through 11th grade. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he would not penalize Minnesota school districts for dipping below the state’s instructional day minimum.

Still, several area schools in Minnesota, including not only Albert Lea Area Schools but also NRHEG and United South Central, are not fighting to beat that number thanks to online instruction days, referred to locally as eLearning or flexible learning days. Minnesota’s statute allows up to five online instruction days to count toward its calendar quota.

For Albert Lea, this means the district calendar takes a three-day hit for its eight days off. The 2018-19 calendar had 173 instructional days allotted for secondary students and 172 for elementary students, leaving the district with 170 and 169 instructional days still in the year.

However, the Albert Lea district continues to utilize online instruction days past the state-accepted allowance.

“We believe it is beneficial to our students,” said Albert Lea Area Schools Superintendent Mike Funk. “… Why would I be looking at the minimum when I could be doing better for my students?”

District teachers approved a memorandum of understanding amending the days they agree to provide online instruction, adding five days, Funk said. As of Tuesday, the district has already used two of those days. The memorandum of understanding will go before the school board for formal approval at its Feb. 19 meeting.

For the district, having snow days is not a question of funding, Deputy Superintendent Lori Volz said. As long as kindergarten through 12th-grade schools meet the minimum instructional quota for the year, they will receive their funding.

“The real cost is the loss of instruction for the students,” she said.

Before calling a snow day, Funk said he speaks with Director of Facilities Steve Anderson about the roads and other area superintendents.

“You make a decision what’s best for your district, but you also have to be aware of what’s going on around you because you don’t want to hang alone,” Funk said. “You don’t want to be the only guy open when everyone else is closed.”

Albert Lea Area Schools used to schedule a make-up day on President’s Day, Funk said, or the district also has the option to add school days onto the end of the year to make up days missed due to weather. However, Funk said the district is not considering adding make-up days to the calendar for this school year.

“It’s not real effective to add days at the end of the year,” he said.

However, he said he does feel the crunch on instructional time.

Other districts have chosen differently.

Minnesota area superintendents at United South Central and NRHEG said they are both intending to add instructional days back onto the calendar.

At United South Central, the school board approved three online instructional days, Superintendent Keith Fleming said. As of Tuesday, the district had taken six snow days, with three of those counting as an instructional loss.

The district did designate some make-up days, so Friday and April 18 — which was intended as a make-up day but whose notation was overlooked on the official calendar — will be taken as make-ups should the April 18 make-up day be approved at Tuesday’s board meeting.

However, Fleming said he knows there is a “long way to go yet” in winter.

“At some point, we have to have a conversation and see what our board wants to do, if that’s realistic to continue to add days,” he said.

For Fleming, making up those days — despite still being ahead according to the state’s instructional tally, with 175 instructional days initially scheduled for secondary students and 174 for elementary students — is a reflection of the master agreement with teaching staff, who were contracted to teach that many days.

“It’s our feeling that they’re hired to teach that many days,” he said. “We’re going to do that many days to get that number of days of instruction in. So, it’s a contractual thing.”

NRHEG Superintendent Dale Carlson said students in his district can also expect to make up days, but theirs will fall at the end of the year: tentatively, June 3 and 4.

As of Tuesday, NRHEG had taken eight snow days, five of which were flexible learning days — though not taken all in order. The district had originally approved online instruction days for the year — until they took them.

“We got to that point, and then we started talking here that we recommended at the last board meeting to approve two additional flex days,” Carlson said. “That would give us five, which the state allows.”

By that time, they had already canceled two more days of school.

He noted the district, whose calendar had 174 instructional days planned, had a two- to three-day flexibility in meeting the minimum hours as of Monday. With another canceled day Tuesday comes another day potentially tacked on to the end of the year.

“We’ll see how the rest of the season goes,” Carlson said.

For Carlson, making up days is about a belief in the amount of instruction and learning time students should receive.

“We feel 174 days of instruction is important for our students,” he said.

However, he recognized it’s a balancing act.

“You know, how much do we want to disrupt — if you want to call it that as far as extending the school year — and balance that with the importance of making sure our students have opportunities to maximize their learning or the school year,” he said.

Alden-Conger Superintendent Brian Shanks and Glenville-Emmons Superintendent Jerry Reshetar were unavailable for comment.

 

Iowa schools

While the state requirements are different for Iowa schools, the problems are similar.

The Iowa Department of Education is counting hours, which means Lake Mills Superintendent Chad Kohagen can tell you, to the minute, how much time the district had planned into its instructional calendar: 1,120 hours and 25 minutes, he told the Lake Mills Board of Education at its meeting Monday night.

Iowa statute requires schools to give 1,080 hours of instructional time, which comes close to 180 days of school. Iowa does not allow online instruction to count toward that quota. That gave Lake Mills about 5 3/4 days built into the calendar before the district began to dip below the instructional requirements, Kohagen said.

As of Tuesday, Lake Mills had missed eight days of school. But the district is one day further away from meeting that quota thanks to Wednesday, which it took off in celebration of its wrestling team heading to the state duals tournament.

On Monday, the Lake Mills Board of Education approved four extra calendar days of school, bumping back its final day to May 31. Lake Mills Secondary Principal James Scholbrock noted at the meeting that the administration would be fine with moving into June.

“Days without students are days we don’t get back,” he said. “… I’d like to make up every snow day we have.”

Northwood-Kensett is waiting a little longer to decide on additional calendar days. Superintendent Michael Crozier said the district will make a determination in April. After all, the district had snow days in April last year.

As of Tuesday, Northwood-Kensett students had missed eight instructional days due to weather. At 6.58 hours a day, that’s 56.64 hours of instructional time, dropping the school’s intended 1,144 hours to just over 1,087.

But Crozier said he would feel comfortable using days at the end of May to make up snow days “whether we’re above the 1080 or not” to make up as much instructional time as they can.

But at this point, Mother Nature could schedule more snow days into her own agenda.

“We’ll deal with it as it comes,” Crozier said. “Who knows how much more there is to come?”

As of press time Tuesday, Albert Lea Area Schools was set for a two-hour late start for Wednesday morning.

“This is a tough time of the year to sleep as a superintendent,” Funk said.

 

Snow days thus far in Albert Lea:

Jan. 18

Jan. 22

Jan. 28

Jan. 29

Jan. 30

Jan. 31

Feb. 7

Feb. 12

All except for Jan. 31 were eLearning days

 

Albert Lea (as of Tuesday afternoon)

Total eLearning days taken: 7

eLearning days recognized by the state: 5

Snow days taken (no eLearning occurred): 1

Total snow days taken, including eLearning days: 8

eLearning days left in agreement with teachers: 3