Green Bay To Extend School Days By 3 Minutes For Remainder Of Year

Starting next week, public school students in Green Bay will spend an extra three minutes in class every day for the rest of the school year. That’s because the district exceeded its two designated snow days for the year, leaving schools to make up instruction time before summer vacation starts on June 9.

June 11 was originally set aside as a make-up day but Lori Blakeslee, a spokeswoman for the Green Bay Area School District, said administrators opted to spread out the time instead because area summer camps are set to begin that day.

“Students really won’t notice the difference, Blakeslee said, adding that longer days was the most convenient option from a logistics standpoint. “This will not impact afterschool activities or athletics. This will not impact our busing schedule. So I think, for the most part, this is the least disruptive way to make up the instructional minutes.”

According to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction spokesman Tom McCarthy, state law regarding classroom time changed in 2013. Instead of a required 180 days of instruction each year, standards moved to an hourly basis. Kindergartners must be in class for 437 hours, first- through sixth-graders for 1,050 hours and high schoolers for 1,137 hours.

McCarthy said extending the day is a common way for districts to meet those requirements, though he added that DPI does not collect data to ensure compliance. Instead, he said, “we certify that they are meeting the requirements. If we audit them, we go in and look at their days scheduled. But by and large we assume districts are following the law.”

McCarthy added that districts have used other, more notable, ways to meet class time requirements.

“We do hear stories from time to time of districts that really are jammed up that do weekend instruction,” he said. Students may not like that but, “that was the intent of the law, was to provide the flexibility to districts.”

In light of the two April snowstorms that prompted Green Bay to cut short two days of class this year, it is hard for the district to predict what to do if another weather-related event becomes a concern.

“We are going to hope we won’t need another snow day as we move into mid April,” Blakeslee said.