Livingston schools to get longer days
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LIVINGSTON — The Livingston Parish School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to add 14 minutes at the end of each school day from Oct. 13 to April 9 to ensure students make up class time lost during and after Hurricane Gustav.
School Superintendent Bill Spear recommended the proposal and other schedule changes Tuesday in a special board meeting.
All but four schools in the parish missed five planned days of class time after the Labor Day holiday, Sept. 1, when Gustav made landfall.
The other four, French Settlement Elementary and High schools, Eastside Elementary School in Denham Springs and Levi Milton Elementary School near Walker, missed six days.
Spears said that the school system has five extra days built into its schedule that could be used to make up class time.
But two already were used in early August on staff professional development. A third, Nov. 4, is an election day on which Spear has said he has received a lot of input not to have students at schools, where many poll sites are situated.
The fourth, May 22, is reserved for state testing, Spear said.
The fifth day, Jan. 5, will be the first day students return for the spring semester, a day earlier than planned, Spear told the board. But the rest of the missed time must be made up by adding time to each school day. Students must be in school 177 days or 63,720 instructional minutes.
At four schools that missed an extra day, Spear and those schools’ principals also recommended shaving three minutes and 30 seconds per day of non-instructional time from the existing schedules and adding that to instructional time.
Spear said in an interview after the meeting that the school system would recoup the lost class time by April 1, when state testing begins. But school officials decided to keep the longer school days consistent through the end of testing April 9.
Spring break starts the next day, April 10, and schools will return to their normal schedules after spring break, Spear said.
School Superintendent Bill Spear recommended the proposal and other schedule changes Tuesday in a special board meeting.
All but four schools in the parish missed five planned days of class time after the Labor Day holiday, Sept. 1, when Gustav made landfall.
The other four, French Settlement Elementary and High schools, Eastside Elementary School in Denham Springs and Levi Milton Elementary School near Walker, missed six days.
Spears said that the school system has five extra days built into its schedule that could be used to make up class time.
But two already were used in early August on staff professional development. A third, Nov. 4, is an election day on which Spear has said he has received a lot of input not to have students at schools, where many poll sites are situated.
The fourth, May 22, is reserved for state testing, Spear said.
The fifth day, Jan. 5, will be the first day students return for the spring semester, a day earlier than planned, Spear told the board. But the rest of the missed time must be made up by adding time to each school day. Students must be in school 177 days or 63,720 instructional minutes.
At four schools that missed an extra day, Spear and those schools’ principals also recommended shaving three minutes and 30 seconds per day of non-instructional time from the existing schedules and adding that to instructional time.
Spear said in an interview after the meeting that the school system would recoup the lost class time by April 1, when state testing begins. But school officials decided to keep the longer school days consistent through the end of testing April 9.
Spring break starts the next day, April 10, and schools will return to their normal schedules after spring break, Spear said.
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