Alachua County adds seven minutes to each school day

Alachua County schools have announced that beginning on Wednesday, January 17th, schools in that county will add seven minutes to their school day.

Six hundred instructional minutes were reportedly lost when school was canceled on January 3rd and 4th due to safety concerns related to the weather. Under state law, those minutes must be made up. 

The county originally considered having school session on June 4th and 5th, but after further review, they decided that to add the time to each school day of the second semester would be better. 

"At this point in the school year and based on a number of other factors, we felt it would be best to add minutes to each day rather than add two more days at the end of the school year," said Superintendent Karen Clarke. "This option minimizes the impact on students, families and staff."

Hurricane Irma had previously used the days built into the 2017-218 school year calendar as make-up days. 

"We had no more unused make-up days left in the calendar," said Clarke. "We also had to consider high school graduations and other end-of-the-year activities that would have been affected by a later ending date."

The school year ends on June 1st.