OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma school districts now have an additional temporary tool at their disposal when figuring out their calendars in the COVID-19 era.
By a 5-2 count Thursday morning, the state Board of Education approved a one- year waiver allowing school districts the option to count Saturday school days towards the calendar instructional time minimums for the 2020-2021 academic year.
Under state law, school districts are required to have at least 180 instructional days or its equivalent in hours and minutes.
Superintendent Joy Hofmeister reiterated that districts are not required or asked to offer six-day school weeks. Instead, she said that the option would allow districts more flexibility in their efforts to facilitate social distancing in classrooms. She also made it clear that the notion would not and should not be used as any district’s first choice when figuring out the calendar for the coming school year.
“This would be if they’re rotating a cohort of ‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘C’ students,” Hofmeister said. “This would provide them with an additional day. We’re dealing with families who may not want to go to school when there’s a large population.”
Board members Estela Hernandez and Kurt Bollenbach voted against the waiver.
“Students have gone through a quite a bit of stress emotionally and mentally,” Hernandez said. “For us to open up and take away that weekend time with their families and their time they have being together whether that’s in churches or in other activities, I feel that Saturday would not be a wise thing.
“I think we can look outside the box and encourage our districts to be creative on how to add time due to this pandemic.”
Along with approving the Saturday school waiver, the board got its first look at its budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
In May, the Oklahoma legislature approved a $2.99 billion budget for common education in fiscal year 2021, a decrease of $78.2 million or roughly 2.5 percent from 2020 and $210 million short of what the board formally requested in October. The department actually received an additional $160.7 million through the Education Reform Revolving Fund, also known as the House Bill 1017 fund, including $30 million from Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority Revolving Fund. However, allocations from the state’s general revenue fund were down $524 million from 2020.
However, that budget does not include any federal COVID-19 relief funds that are specifically designated for common education.
Once those funds are added in, common education funding will be held harmless compared to other state-funded departments. Oklahoma is slated to receive $160 million for public education through the CARES Act.
An additional $39.9 million microgrant has been earmarked for education through the Department of Education’s Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, but those funds are under the purview of Gov. Kevin Stitt. The state has until Monday to submit its proposal to the federal government on how those funds will be used.
“Unfortunately, this budget is shaped in the context of a worldwide pandemic,” Chief of Government Affairs Carolyn Thompson said. “That is by and large why you see a decrease here.”