[Editor's Note: I didn't have time to go through the entire long news release, so I chose to simply add Superintendent Hawkins' apology and changes on top, and the amended calendar will be at the bottom of the whole article.]

I need to issue a correction regarding the adjustments made to the 2024-2025 academic calendar to meet the Public Education Department's (PED) requirement of 180 instructional days.  In a rush to get the answer out to the community before the end of the day, just hours after receiving the new guidelines yesterday, the obvious thing happened.  A mistake was discovered.  I was rushing to give all the answers to calm fears and allay concerns... and that is when mistakes usually happen.  My Bad. 🤦 

After an initial consultation, we discovered a couple of adjustments we will need to make. In our previous communication, we outlined a strategy that involved designating certain parent conference days as remote learning days. Upon further review, instead of converting parent conference days into remote learning days, we have identified two professional development days that will need to be designated as remote learning days for students.  The Parent Conference Days will count as instruction days towards the 180 days without being identified as Remote Days. 
Now, the specific dates for these Remote Learning Days are November 1, 2024, and January 20, 2025. These are still Staff Development/ In-Service Days for staff. This adjustment allows for meaningful engagement in learning activities at home on these days, which will count towards our instructional day total.

Furthermore, to ensure compliance with the 180-day requirement while maintaining our original school year start and end dates, students will now attend classes in person on February 17, 2025. This change not only satisfies the instructional day mandate but also preserves the integrity of our other holidays and parent conference schedules.

The Silver Schools District is committed to transparent communication while adapting to these regulatory changes. We apologize for any confusion caused by the initial announcement yesterday and appreciate your understanding as we fine-tune our calendar to best serve our students, staff, and community and meet the new Public Education Department's Requirements.  Hopefully, we will be able to satisfy these new requirements without having to exceed our original start and stop days.  

We are working extremely hard to prevent adding days before August 5th or after May 30th!  We will continue to review and adjust our scheduling as necessary to uphold our commitment to providing quality education within the parameters set forth by the PED.  I hope to say this is the last change we will need to make, but I can't 100% swear to it!  But it is better to keep you in the loop and let you know how it looks as we are getting this addressed.  The updated calendar will have today's date of March 8, 2024. 

_______________________________________________ Below is the previous news release:

In response to the recent mandate by the Public Education Department (PED) establishing a minimum of 180 instructional days and 1140 hours of instructional time for the upcoming academic year, Silver Schools District has meticulously revised its previously adopted calendar to meet these standards without extending contractual obligations or diminishing educational integrity. The previously board adopted calendar included 176 instructional days.

A key modification involved the reduction of 3 parent conference days to 2, aligning with the statutory limit by converting September 12, 2024, from a conference day to a standard instructional day, thereby increasing the total to 177 days.

Furthermore, the district re-evaluated its staff development plans, particularly changing August 30 from a potential compensatory day related to vector training completion back to a regular instructional day, cumulatively reaching 178 days.

In a creative effort to preserve the essential parent-teacher dialogue while complying with the new mandates, Silver Schools has adapted two remaining parent conference days (September 13, 2024, and February 21, 2025) into remote learning days, counting towards the instructional days tally, while still facilitating parent-teacher meetings.

Adjustments extend to the Wednesday schedule to fulfill the 5 and 1/2 hour requirement for a "full" instructional day. The district also intends to revisit and, where feasible, revert to previous bell schedules to maintain instructional hours without significantly extending the school day.

These strategic changes ensure that Silver Schools meets PED's additional unfunded mandated instructional day requirements without altering previously agreed holiday breaks.

Targeted Growth Objectives for Cliff Schools Under New PED Regulations

Addressing Cliff Schools, which currently operates on a four-day week, the district will work to identify the PED specified growth targets in reading and language arts proficiency necessary to maintain this schedule under the new regulations. The exemption to the 180-day rule hinges on significant improvement in Reading, with the growth targets set as follows:

Below 45% Proficiency: Schools must achieve at least a 15% growth in reading and language arts scores.
• 45% to 65% Proficiency: A minimum growth of 10% is required.
• 65% to 80% Proficiency: Schools should show at least an 8% growth.
• Above 80% Proficiency: Schools are exempt from the 180-day requirement, regardless of growth.

Cliff Schools is currently reviewing the previous year's proficiency data to determine the necessary improvement to maintain the four-day week structure. Mr. Hawkins will visit with Cliff staff Monday afternoon to discuss the rule further.

Superintendent William D. Hawkins emphasized the district's determination to adapt to these changes effectively, ensuring the community that, "The PED has made their decision, and we will do what we need to do to do what's best for OUR KIDS and meet the PED's Calendar requirements."

William Hawkins
Silver Consolidated Schools Superintendent
575-956-2000
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