LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas — For the past week, we've heard from concerned parents and teachers about how schools will make up these most recent snow days.
Benton School District missed five days because of the winter weather, and now Superintendent Kim Anderson is weighing the options to make up those days.
Anderson said they haven't decided exactly how to make up the lost time, but her conversation with Education Secretary Jacob Oliva provided relief moving forward.
On Thursday morning, Oliva met with superintendents to let them know how to make up those snow days for the rest of the year.
Ultimately, it boiled down to two options: adding days to the end of the year or adding minutes to the end of each school day.
"By saying, "Here's a worksheet... go home and fill this out or log into a Zoom for an hour,' is equivalent to making up that day of instruction is ridiculous," Oliva said. "When we look at those minimum expectations, it's 178 days of school or 1,068 hours of instruction."
Oliva said schools can pivot to AMI days during inclement weather if they meet that requirement.
"If you're a school district that goes 1,750 hours a school year, and we're dealing with severe weather, and we are not going to be able to have school today... to maintain that continuity... that connection, and they want to pivot to an alternative learning day," Oliva said. "They have the flexibility to do that as long as they meet the minimum requirement."
The Arkansas Department of Education is offering waivers to school districts looking to change their calendars from the days counted to the hours counted.