RISON - At least two school days will be added to the end of the 2023-24 school year for students in both the Cleveland County and Woodlawn School Districts after both had to dismiss classes Tuesday and Wednesday due to icy road conditions from the winter storm.
The Arkansas Department of Education did have a policy of allowing students to make-up school days that were lost due to closures by completing Alternative Means of Instruction (AMI) course work. AMI packets were a series of lessons that students completed during their off day to account for the time missed at school.
However, the use of AMI days was unclear under the new LEARNS Act so state Rep. Julie Mayberry of East End asked Attorney General Tim Griffin to interpret the law regarding the use of the AMI make-up days. Under his interpretation, Griffin said AMI lessons cannot be used for make-up days. The attorney general’s opinion stated:
“AMI days do not count toward the 178 days or 1,068 hours each school year to be eligible to receive state funds for teacher salary increases... Any days or hours during which a school district is not open for ‘on-site’ in-person instruction would not count toward this requirement regardless of whether alternative methods of instruction, including virtual instruction, occur on those days.”
Both the Cleveland County and Woodlawn School Districts included make-up days at the end of their respective school year calendars.
For Cleveland County, the make-up days are May 28, 29, 30, 31 and June 3.
For Woodlawn, the make-up days are May 29, 30, 31 and June 3, 4.
Woodlawn Superintendent Dr. Kevin Hancock said school districts could use an existing school holiday as a make-up day rather than adding them day to the end of the year. However, he said such a move would require approval of the school board since the board had already approved the school calendar as presented with the make-up days tacked ...
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