Students to be Dismissed 15 Minutes Later
Dismissal change begins Jan. 25 (a scheduled late-start day)
by Jason Heitz
January 18, 2010
As you all know, we have been plagued with a great deal of snow and two major winter storms which has shut down school for five days. We have also had several school days disrupted with either a 1:00 pm dismissal or 10:00 am start. With the snow in mind, we have been discussing ways to make-up for lost time.
The Nebraska Department of Education in Rule 10 requires that all students have 1,080 contact hours for grades 7-12 and 1,032 contact hours for the elementary grades. The number of contact hours is calculated as the time students are being taught in the classroom. Recess, passing time, lunch, etc. are not counted in the number of hours.
In an effort to comply with Rule 10, the school district has decided to extend the school day for students fifteen minutes. The extension of the day will start on January 25, 2010 (a reminder that we have a scheduled late-start on that day also). The new dismissal time for the secondary will be 3:56 pm and the new dismissal time for the elementary will be 3:51 pm. With fifteen minutes make-up time per day, we will be able to account for the hours we have lost due to the snow. It is believed that adding the time over several days will be better used than tacking on days at the end of the year. In other words, we feel academically it makes more sense.
On April 16th, Mr. Waddle will announce the last official day of school. Hopefully, there will not be a reason to cancel or delay school after this date. As of right now, the last day of school for students has been extended to May 20th.
If you have questions, feel free to contact the school during regular business hours or email Mr. Waddle directly at cwaddle@esu1.org.
Click on the link below to see the letter sent from Mr. Waddle to parents, in both English and Spanish
