The board of trustees of this district will annually adopt and implement a school calendar which will be based on a minimum number of instructional hours as follows:
Grades Hours
9-12 990
4-8 900
1-3 810
K 450
Alternative Schools 900
(any grades)
Instructional hours may include school assemblies, testing, and other instructionally related activities directly involving students. Instructional hours will not include transportation to and from school, time between classes, recess, and lunch periods.
The board will provide access to the minimum annual required instructional hours for all district students, even if the student is enrolled in a multiple shift program.
The board may reduce the annual required instructional hours as follows:
a) Up to a total of twenty-two (22) hours to accommodate staff developmental activities conducted on such days as the board deems appropriate;
b) Up to a total of eleven (11) hours for emergency school closures due to adverse weather conditions and facility failures; and
c) Up to an additional total of eleven (11) hours for 12th grade students.
Student and staff activities related to the opening and closing of the school year, grade reporting, program planning, staff meetings, and other classroom and building management activities will not be counted as instructional hours and will not be used to reduce the annual required instructional hours.
If appropriate, the board will request exemption to the required instructional hours, or the reduction thereof, from the state superintendent of public instruction for any district school when the unforeseen closure of that school does not affect the attendance at other district schools.
When districtwide school closures are necessary as a result of natural occurrences creating unsafe conditions for students, and a county or state disaster declaration has been issued for one (1) or more of the counties in which the district is located, the district may seek a waiver of the minimum number of instructional hours set forth above from the State Board of Education. Any such waiver request will include a description of the efforts by the school district to make up lost instructional hours, the range of grades impacted, and the number of hours the district is requesting be waived.
In no case will the district combine the following reduction of instructional hours in a single school year:
(a) The instructional time requirement for 12th grade students;
(b) An exemption approved by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for individual building closures for unforeseen circumstances; and
(c) A waiver approved by the State Board of Education for Districtwide closures due to unforeseen circumstance when a county or state disaster declaration has been issued.
The school calendar will be drafted and submitted through administrative channels for staff input. The board will approve the calendar for the upcoming school year, harvest break is flexible and may be changed at any time.
LEGAL REFERENCE:
Idaho Code Sections
33-506
33-512
ADOPTED: November 19, 2018
AMENDED: