Extending school days instead of the school year? Kentucky lawmaker pitches one-time solution to NTI cap
'Our districts, our superintendents—they know their districts the best. They know what works for them. They know what calendar would be the best. And it just allows them to be creative,' Rep. Timmy Truett (R-Mckee) told FOX 56 News.
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As the only school principal in the General Assembly, Rep. Truett has a unique understanding of the challenge many Kentucky schools face with so few non-traditional instruction days remaining at this point in the school year. His district is among the 31 around the state that have already maxed them out, which means they could have to extend the calendar if more bad weather, sickness, or other circumstances spring up.
'Nobody wants to be testing in June, because at that point, people are done,' Truett said. 'You're fighting with attendance; you're fighting with family vacations. And it's very important that we try to get our kids in the seats with as much possible time as we can and also get them out so they can still enjoy their summer.'
Truett has filed a bill, not to add more NTI days but to give schools the option to extend the school day itself instead of tacking another day on the calendar.
'What I've looked at, if you could add 30 minutes a day, you know, over a two-week period, you've picked up basically a day,' Truett said.
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Whether that means an earlier start or a later school day would essentially be up to the district to meet their own necessary number of required instruction hours the law demands. The bill also has a carve-out to allow the education commissioner to forgive up to 5 missed 'calamity' days, but only if that district has had to extend its calendar beyond June 4.
'They can be excused for those active shooter days that we had—flooding days, you know, ice days, any type of extreme weather days,' Truett said. Truett said there's a mix of love and hate for the proposal. If lawmakers take it up, it would only apply to this school year.
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