Chuck Hughes, Board of Education, Seat 5
♦ As a member of the Board of Education, I hesitated to weigh in on the discussion of the extended school day policy. However, since others chose to comment, I will share my understanding of the reason we voted to add ten-minutes a day to the school day. My opinion is based upon open session conversations concerning the issue and review of related board minutes.
Relevant extracts from the minutes of the BOE’s February 24, 2014 meeting (verbatim and in italics):
“***Mr. Wagner made a motion to amend the agenda to include discussion on the snow make-up days . . . unanimously approved. Colby Cochran, Director of Assessment and Accountability, informed the Board about different ways that the missed instructional time could be made up for the missed snow days. He also presented a plan to the Board that the system can use if any more days are missed due to bad weather.
During the discussion of the issue, I asked the question (not reflected in the minutes), “Will the students get a refund of any unused banked time when spring arrives?” The answer was “No. They will just get more curriculum exposure.”
The “added minutes” issue next appeared at the March 24th 2014 meeting. By this time the need to have a snow-day savings account had morphed into a desire to increase student curriculum exposure. Minutes of this meeting read as follows:
Relevant extracts from the minutes of the BOE’s March 24, 2014 meeting:
Julie Morrow, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum gave a report to the Board concerning adding ten minutes to the school day. She informed the Board that adding ten minutes to each day (is) will add fifty-five instructional hours, which is the equivalent of nine school days. There was no longer any mention of snow days, at least not mentioned in the minutes.
Although I did not believe that ten minutes a day would have a significant academic impact, I viewed the added minutes as putting “money” aside for a “snowy/icy day emergency” and voted for the plan. Having these extra hours banked, why would we not want to either use them to make up lost days if needed or refund them at the end of the year if not used?
The apparent confusion and misunderstanding mentioned in the media and concerned parents supports my argument that the Board of Education needs to videotape its meetings and post them for viewing by the residents of Rowan County rather than rely on the postmortem recollections of those in attendance.
