Irma update: Lee, Collier public schools working together to plan makeup days
Correction: East Lee County High School and Village Oaks Elementary are both in differentiated accountability. An early version of this story stated otherwise.
It's still not totally clear how Lee County Public Schools will be making up the 11 days students will be out of the classroom due to Hurricane Irma, but at least two of them will be waived from makeup day requirements.
Pam Stewart, Florida's education commissioner, announced this Tuesday in a message to superintendents.
When class time is cut short because of a "bona fide emergency," Stewart has the power to waive makeup days "when it is not feasible to makeup the lost days or hours."
For more coverage of Hurricane Irma and the storm's aftermath visit: news-press.com/hurricane.
The two days forgiven by Stewart are likely in reference to those called by Gov. Rick Scott on Sept. 7. He required all K-through-12 public schools, colleges and universities in Florida to be closed the Friday before the storm and the Monday after it.
"For the communities that were hit hardest by Hurricane Irma, it may not be feasible to make up all the hours of lost instruction," Stewart wrote in her message. "Given how critical instructional hours are to the success of each student, districts must make up as many of the lost instructional hours as possible."
More:Hurricane Irma update: Lee County schools won't open until Sept. 25
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Among the hardest hit school systems are those in Lee and Collier counties. The neighboring districts have been out the same amount of time and faced similar struggles in dealing with cleanup and restoring power to schools.
The goal is for both to restart classes Monday — making it 11 days that schoolchildren will have been out of the classroom. (It would be 12, but both counties were scheduled to be off anyway for Rosh Hashana this Thursday).
"This is the largest crisis we have ever had to deal with in terms of of an impact on school days," explained Lee County Superintendent Greg Adkins.
Because the two Southwest Florida school systems qualify as a hard-hit area, each can complete an application requesting a break in how those days are made back up.
The form, supplied by the state, asks districts to explain how many hours of planned teacher workdays and vacation time will be transitioned into regular school days. The request is due by Oct. 16, and Stewart will make the call on whether to accept the request.
Although no formal plan has been announced, Adkins said staff has come up with four options for the makeup days.
“What we are trying to do is kind of weigh the loss of those instructional days, which is really critical, to just the needs of families and employees and their schedules,” he said. “I imagine that there will be some compromise when we finally come to some type of agreement, and certainly what the (Department of Education) has done is help because there’s two days right there that we really don’t have to worry about.”
Outside of this, he said a real focus is to work alongside Collier officials to form a similar request for Southwest Florida’s public schools.
“Collier County is in a very similar situation," Adkins said, later adding: “It just makes sense to make a similar request and that way you serve the larger community in a consistent manner."
This includes student populations, the needs of the students and their families, as well as the types of schools in each school system.
East Lee County High School and Village Oaks Elementary, for example, are both in differentiated accountability, which are monitored closely by the state due to poor school grades over a series of years.
"Both are really at risk of real heavy duty state intervention, so we’re trying to get some relief from that from the state as well," Adkins said.
The two districts are also eyeing the state’s testing calendar in the hopes the state provides them with more time “so our kids can be prepared to take that test, or at least maybe hold us harmless for this year,” Adkins said.
The Lee schools chief hopes a decision is made in the next day or two.
About makeup days
Weather-related closures are typically made up with flexible school days that are built into the calendars. They are known in Florida as hurricane days.
In Lee, the district only planned for one — Jan. 8 — and it is already been used to make up for a school cancellation due to flooding throughout Southwest Florida in August.
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Public schools are required to be open for 180 days, or meet a hourly class schedule, in order to receive state funding. Class hours can't drop below 720 net hours for kindergarten through third grade, or 900 hours for all other grade levels.
As long as these requirements are met, local school boards have the power to come up with a new instructional calendar without state approval, and it will not impact state funding or enrollment counts.
Lee's school year calendar is built for exactly 180 days for students, and includes five more professional or in-service days for teachers.
Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @NP_pstaik.
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