Durango School District 9-R will discontinue early release days after April 10 to make up for snow days the district has called this year.
Students will also attend classes on April 24, a day that had been scheduled as a professional development day for staff members and a day off for students.
The Board of Education approved the plan earlier this week.
Under Colorado law, students must have a minimum of 1,056 instructional hours per school year. School boards are required to approve a school year of at least 1,080 hours per academic calendar, but students are allowed to miss 24 hours without needing to make up time for safety reasons.
The district has called six snow days so far this year. The district must make up two days and forty-seven minutes, said Superintendent Karen Cheser.
The Colorado Department of Education considers a traditional instructional day to be six hours. By doing away with early release days and adding an instructional day on April 24, 9-R will be able to make up the necessary hours missed in the classroom.
The board also approved Cheser’s recommendations in the event that more snow days must be called.
If there is a seventh snow day, eight minutes will be added to the end of each remaining school day. If there’s an eighth snow day, then May 26 will be a regular school day. Otherwise, May 25 is the last day of school.
If more than eight school cancellations occur, days will be added onto the end of the academic calendar.
The board also approved Cheser’s recommendation to include five snow day makeup days at the end of the 2023-24 calendar to be used if needed. The previous calendar had 169 days and the new calendar will now have 174 days.
During Tuesday’s school board meeting, Cheser discussed how the district decides to cancel school in the event of bad weather conditions. At about 4 a.m. on the morning of a storm officials from Colorado Department of Transportation and Office of Emergency management collaborate by phone to assess public safety risks caused by weather.
OEM then notifies 9-R while district staff members, including the transportation director, also report on road conditions. From these reports, Cheser and safety director Kathy Morris make the call about 5 a.m. on whether to cancel school.
Cheser said the goal is to have school unless the roads are too dangerous for the buses.
“Winter weather affected everyone in our community over the past few months,” Cheser said in a news release Thursday. “We appreciate everyone’s patience and adaptability after many school events were canceled or rescheduled, and buses were delayed as drivers took extra time to drive slowly.”
Cheser’s recommendations were made based on a survey taken by 712 staff members and 1,498 families. About 50% of families suggested that making April 24 a student day should be the first option and about 54% of families said canceling early release should be the first option.
tbrown@durangoherald.com
An earlier version of this story gave a partially incorrect description of how Durango School District 9-R decides whether to call a snow day.
