District adding instructional time to make up for days lost to Hurricane Ian

Press release from Alachua County Public Schools

ALACHUA COUNTY, Fla. – The district’s school year calendar and the hours at most schools serving elementary students will be revised to make up for the three instructional days lost due to Hurricane Ian.

To meet state requirements for learning time, the district will be adding 10 instructional minutes to early-release Wednesdays at most schools serving elementary students beginning October 26 and continuing through the rest of the school year. 

This is in addition to using flex days on January 3 and February 20 as regular school days. Flex days are days built into the academic calendar that can be used to make up time lost to severe weather or other emergencies.

The state requires 4^th and 5^th graders to have more instructional minutes during the school year than students in kindergarten through 3^rd grade. With the loss of the three days and with elementary schools dismissing early every Wednesday, the district was short of the required time for 4^th and 5^th graders, even with the flex days.

The schools that will have the additional 10 instructional minutes on early-release Wednesdays include:

Alachua, Archer, Chiles, Foster, Glen Springs, Hidden Oak, High Springs (elementary grades only), Idylwild, Irby, Lake Forest, Littlewood, Meadowbrook, Metcalfe, Newberry Elementary, Norton, Parker, Rawlings, Shell, Talbot, Terwilliger, Wiles, Williams. 

The revised hours will apply to all students at those schools, including K-3^rd grade students.

Updated school hours are available at https://www.sbac.edu/schoolhours. An updated school year calendar is available at https://www.sbac.edu/calendars