Neillsville District Administrator Talks 180 Days Bill, Part 2
Friday, March 28th, 2014 -- 3:58 PM
-A bill awaiting Governor Scott Walker?s signature would give school districts more flexibility on the number of days required for face-to-face teaching.Neillsville District Administrator John Gaier talked more about the bill waiting for the governor?s signature.
John said, "The new bill, that the governor has on his desk right now, would allow us to not have to meet the 180 days, but still require us to meet those minimum hour requirements. So, it does give the district flexibility on how they want to meet those hour requirements. For instance, if a district meets more than the required number of hours and they happen to miss a day; they wouldn't necessarily have to make up the day or add minutes to their day, like for make-up snow days and those types of things. So, it does give the districts some flexibility."
This bill wouldn?t effect start or end dates for schools, but it would affect make-up days and even how a school runs their week.
John said, "This bill does not address the requirement that schools cannot start prior to September 1st. That would be a different piece of legislation that would have to take place if we were going to change that. But it does allow us the flexibility to not have to meet 180 days in order to get our hours in. So, it does give districts some flexibility about that. Make-up time could be done differently. So instead of having to be concerned that you have 180 days plus the hour requirement; it could mean, that if a district had a number of snow days, they could simply add minutes to existing days without having to meet that 180 day requirement. Which again, it does give the districts some flexibility."
If Governor Walker signs the bill before this school year?s end or the beginning of the next year, changes could be made to Neillsville?s calendar.
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