In response to the eight snow days caused by the blizzard last month, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is faced the with dilemma of making up enough time to fulfill the state of Virginia?s school year time requirements.
The FCPS School Board is currently considering three options that would add necessary hours to the school year; the Board will vote on Thursday.
Option one involves turning April 12, currently a teacher workday, into a full school day and adding minutes to each school day. Superintendent Jack Dale recommended this option to the School Board, which will ?generate an additional seven hours for additional closures? prior to the end of the school year, the FCPS website said.
The additional half hour would be implemented on Monday and run through June 21.
Options two is similar to option one, but involves adding an additional 45 minutes to the end of each day instead of holding school on April 12, according to the FCPS site. This would add even more time than option one for any additional closures this year.
Option three would add three days, June 23, 24 and 25, to the end of the school year, but would not add any additional time to the school day. Seniors, however, will still graduate on June 18.
It has yet to be determined how additional time would be integrated into the Marshall bell schedule.
However, several options have been proposed, including adding extra time for remediation before or after Lunch and Learn or adding the time to classes throughout the day.