Muskegon Sun

Fruitport Community Schools recently issued the following announcement.

Dear parents, guardians, and families:

There have been questions about the canceled days of instruction this year, and what happens as a result of the number of days that we have missed. As such, I wanted to provide the following to you.

First, the State School Aid Act requires that all districts provide at least 180 days of instruction in grades. Next, in order for a district to receive a full-time equated membership and full state aid, each district shall also schedule to provide at least 1,098 hours of pupil instruction. If a district meets certain requirements, it may also count up to 38 hours of qualifying professional development time for teachers as hours of pupil instruction.

Further, the State School Aid Act provides a standard minimum attendance requirement of 75% of the enrolled pupils who are scheduled for instruction for a given day. An exception to this is that for any day of pupil instruction that is added to the end of the instructional calendar to make up time, the minimum attendance requirement for those days changes to 60%. These are just some of the requirements that we must follow in order to receive full state funding and remain compliant with the State School Aid Act and the Michigan Pupil Accounting Manual.

Next, the first six (6) days of scheduled pupil instruction that are canceled because of conditions not within the control of school authorities are forgiven. A district may also request up to an additional three (3) days of forgiven time from the State Superintendent to be applied to instructional time that was canceled due to conditions not within the control of school authorities. This means that schools have up to nine (9) days that may be forgiven, as outlined above.

Fruitport Community Schools has currently canceled two (2) days relating to COVID-19 and staffing, two (2) days relating to threats against the school, two (2) days relating to power outages and damage to our roof infrastructure at Edgewood, and three (3) days relating to snow and ice. One (1) of the threat days will be counted as instructional time because we provided professional development to our staff on this day to further prepare them for dealing with threats against the school. This means that we currently have canceled eight (8) days of instruction that we must account for.

Six (6) of those days have been forgiven, per the Michigan Pupil Accounting Manual. Next, the District intends to apply for a waiver for up to three (3) additional days to cover up to a total of nine (9) canceled days of instruction that are attributed to conditions outside the control of the administration. It is important to recognize that the waiver must be approved by the State Superintendent in order for those additional days to be forgiven. At this time, if the waiver is approved, the District would not have to make up any additional days of instruction. Also, if approved, the District would have one (1) remaining day that may be used before having to add additional days to the calendar.

With the exception of the starting day of school and the amount of pupil contact time required to receive full state school aid, the school calendar is subject to collective bargaining between the District and the Fruitport Education Association. The District has entered into a Letter of Agreement (LOA) with our Association to address the addition of instructional days to the calendar if we must do so. This LOA has been approved by the Board at its most recent meeting this week. That Agreement calls for instructional days to be added to the end of the school year, if required, in order to ensure that the District does not receive a state aid reduction.

Again, at this point, there is not a need to add days at the end of the year; however, if the need arises to cancel school beyond our allowable forgiveness days, we will add days at the end of the school year. Currently, the last scheduled day for the 2021-2022 school year is Friday, June 10, 2022.

Also, so that you are aware, days that are a part of the common calendar such as spring break are not able to be adjusted as law requires that we must follow the MAISD Common Calendar. The only exception to this would be for the District to receive a waiver issued by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

I know that this is a lot of information, but I hope that this helps provide some clarity as we move forward. Have a great day, enjoy the upcoming weekend, and thank you for your continued support of Fruitport Community Schools!

Respectfully,

Jason J. Kennedy

Superintendent

Original source can be found here.