District Screw-up Results in 34 Extra School Days

Looks like some school officials in Chino, CA could use some work on their arithmetic:

School's out for summer -- except for hundreds of children in western San Bernardino County who, because of an administrative snafu, must make up 34 days of school this summer.

The fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders at Rolling Ridge Elementary in Chino Hills and Dickson Elementary in Chino exceeded the state's requirement of minutes spent in the classroom, and the last day of school was supposed to be Thursday. But because of the complexities of state law and a clerical error on a spreadsheet, the Chino Unified School District will lose more than $7 million in state funds if classes end at the schools before July 31.

"I'm appalled. I'm just really kind of amazed the state would . . . take it out on the kids," said Michelle Knight, whose son, Tristan, is a Dickson fifth-grader.

Knight said the family's summer schedule is already packed: Mother and son are taking a road trip to Washington to visit family this month, and Tristan is going camping in July with his father, who lives in Colorado. The 11-year-old also has swim meets with the Chino Valley Dolphins team, community theater rehearsals and Boy Scout camp-outs.

"He needs a break. He's a kid," said Knight, a teacher.

I'm guessing the teachers need the break more than the kids.

So, how did this all happen?

"We made an error on the minimum days of about five minutes," said Dickson Principal Sue Pederson. "Realistically, that's our accounting mistake as adults. We're unfortunately making the children pay for it by making them give up their summer."

Students at each school exceeded the state's requirement of at least 54,000 minutes of annual classroom time, but the problem arose in the district's minimum days. Schools typically have one shortened day per week, allowing teachers to use the remaining time for planning and parent conferences. Under state law, these days must be at least 180 minutes, and the daily average classroom time over 10 consecutive days must be 240 minutes.

An internal audit in early May discovered that 34 minimum days had been 175 minutes at Dickson and 170 at Rolling Ridge, said district spokeswoman Julie Gobin. That adds up to a shortage of 170 and 340 minutes, respectively, which could be made up in one or two school days. But under state law, these too-short days do not count at all, meaning that all 34 must be made up to avoid a state penalty of more than $7 million.

"The penalties for not meeting the instructional time requirements are high, much higher than just making up of the time," said Hilary McLean, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education. "It was the intent of the Legislature to make the penalties so stiff [in order] to discourage districts from shaving off minutes here and there."

An associate superintendent at the district, who is retiring this year, has taken responsibility for the errors.

As a long time teacher my mom could probably comment on this better than I could, but as I recall, she did her classroom preparation on her own time, not on time set aside on shortened days. Looks like what got these kids was not only the administrator's errors, but the teacher's union contract.