Early Release will be on Wednesday next year

At the School Board meeting on Monday, April 8th, the BOE approved calendar option A with a early release day of Wednesday.  There was one modification to the calendar, which was that OMS & AHS will release at 1:40 instead of 1:25 for 15 additional minutes of instruction. (AES will release at 1:15pm)

A-PAGE via the District Accountability Committee questioned how the state required minimum number of 1056 hours for Secondary (OMS & AHS) were being met given that the current district policy (IC/ICA) specifically excludes passing time (time between classes) from being included in the definition of "actively engaged in the educational process".  While the state does allow passing time to be included in this definition, current district policy does not.

For the 2012-13 school year, the amount of time that students are "actively engaged in the educational process" at OMS is 990 hours, 8 minutes and at AHS is 990 hours, 27 minutes.  Both of which are well below the 1056 hours required by state law (by about 11 regular school days).  The approved calendar for next year calls for 976 hours at OMS and 994 hours at AHS (with the proposed block schedule).  Again, those are still both significantly less than the 1056 required by the state.

It appeared that the district was ready to push though a change to the IC/ICA policy with a revised agenda for the BOE meeting last night.  However, at the last minute, they tabled the action item regarding that policy.  So our question still remains, how is the district meeting the minimum required 1056 hours of instruction at the middle school and high school level?

Proposed 2013-14 Alamosa School Calendar

 As a result of parent feedback at the School Board meeting on February 19th, the proposed calendar was sent back to the Calendar Committee for revisions.  The main areas of concern were:

1. The day of the week for early release (Wednesday was proposed) 
2. The number of hours of early release (release at 12:45pm nearly doubling the early release time from 41 hours to over 78 hours of loss of instruction) 
3. Misalignment of breaks with Adams State. 

Numerous parents met on Feb 24th with the parent reps to the Calendar Committee and provided suggestions/input to the calendar revision which they took forward to the calendar committee meeting.

Three proposed calendars (click to see them) are now being circulated to teachers for their consideration and vote.  The calendars are identical to the original calendar (and identical to each other) with the following exceptions:

• Option A - Every Wednesday early release at 1:15(Elem)/1:25(Secondary) (35 days @ 1-3/4 hrs = 61.25 hrs loss of instruction at Elem, 70 hrs for Secondary)
• Option B - Every Monday early release at 1:15(Elem)/1:25(Secondary) (32 days @ 1-3/4 hrs = 56 hrs Elem, 64 hrs Secondary)
• Option C - Every Friday early release at 12:45(Elem)/12:55(Secondary) (29 days @ 2-1/4 hrs = 65.25hrs Elem, 72.5 hrs Secondary) 

The School Board will approve one of these calendars at their next meeting on April 8th.   

Don't forget to CAST YOUR VOTE on the 3 calendar options in the poll to the left. (Poll is now closed)

Poll results will be provided to the school board at their April 8th meeting.  If you wish to speak to the school board regarding the calendar, you can attend the meeting at the District Office (209 Victoria Ave).  The meeting begins at 7pm.  Arrive 5 minutes before the meeting to sign up to speak with the secretary.  You will have 3 minutes to speak.