ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) - Extreme winter weather has led to the loss of the Mardi Gras break for students and teachers in Rapides Parish.
Students will attend school on March 3 and 4 - which were the scheduled holidays for Mardi Gras - and 20 extra minutes each school day from Feb. 24 through April 8 to make up days missed due to snow and icy conditions over the past month.
This was one of two options to make up missed instructional time presented by School Superintendent Nason Authement at a special school board meeting Tuesday. He offered a second option but recommended the first.
Authement tells The Town Talk (https://townta.lk/O91Nl1 ) the district needed to make up the 1,400 minutes before state standardized testing begins next month.
He asked the Louisiana Department of Education if a waiver of instructional time would be granted and was told it would not under these circumstances.
The additional minutes can be spread over the day to lengthen each class period or can be added as an intervention class period for targeted help for students. Authement said this will be at the discretion of each school, with Central Office approval.
Longer school days will not affect transportation, he said.
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Information from: Alexandria Daily Town Talk, https://www.thetowntalk.com
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