‘Snow days’ will mean longer school hours

If the last few winters have taught North Texans anything, it’s that setting aside only two inclement weather makeup days in the school year might not be enough.

During the academic year that ended last spring, a February ice storm closed local schools for a day. Another, later that week, sent students home early.

In fact, some districts canceled as many as four days due to inclement weather in February and March alone.

But extending the school year to ensure that Texas public school students get the state-mandated 180 days of instruction isn’t popular with many parents, teachers and students alike. Neither is eliminating other student holidays, like Good Friday or Memorial Day.

So a recent change to state law that sets the minimum school year in minutes instead of days should be a welcome development.

Instead of 180 days, the Lone Star State now requires districts to provide at least 75,600 minutes of instruction during the academic year. (Each day is 420 minutes, including recess and lunch.)

The change give districts more flexibility when it comes to setting their calendars. If extra days are needed, districts might choose to extend school hours for a few days to make up time lost due to weather delays or cancellations.

The Texas Education Agency released a guide instructing districts to keep records that prove they are meeting the minimum minute requirement. However, the law change won’t take affect until the 2016-2017 school year, so school have time yet to determine how they will arrange their calendars.

In theory, this is exactly the kind of innovation the state’s education system needs. It returns authority to those who are best equipped to make decisions for the diverse body of schools throughout the state: the district leaders.

But increasing local control should not come at a cost to children.

And it’s also fair to wonder whether an extra half-hour tacked on to the school day for a month will be productive instructional time.

Students are accustomed to their school days being a certain length. Their attention spans have a limit.

We trust that local districts will consider this when planning the calendar.

As Mansfield school Superintendent Jim Vaszauskas told trustees at a recent meeting, “this [change] could be a very, very good thing for schools.”

That’s probably true, as long as administrators ensure that student learning is top of mind, not the number of minutes in the day.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 5:15 PM with the headline "‘Snow days’ will mean longer school hours."