Area officials weigh in on potential school day extension

Area school superintendents are weighing in on talk by state legislators on mandating more school days in the upcoming legislative session.

The Fort Sumner school board heard Nov. 21 that two legislative bodies are considering increasing the required number of classroom hours for school districts.

Fort Sumner Schools Superintendent Matt Moyer, addressing the board virtually, warned board members to expect extensive discussion about extending the school year.

The 60-day session will run Jan. 17 through March 18. Moyer said preliminary discussions in interim meetings of the Legislative Finance Committee and the Legislative Education Study Committee have indicated the state may extend the school year from 1,080 hours (secondary) to 1,140 hours. The elementary requirement of 980 hours may also be extended to 1,140 hours per year, he said. While the impact of such an extension could be significant for many schools now operating at the minimum levels, Moyer said the impact on the Fort Sumner district would not be as great. Fort Sumner schools now provide 1,120 hours of instruction at both the secondary and elementary levels – 3.7% more than required. A mandated increase to 1,140 hours would add “about a week” to the Fort Sumner school year.

While legislators are pointing to the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit as a key factor in their decision to mandate an extended school year, Moyer said the suit does not actually apply to all districts statewide.

The suit was filed by McKinley County Schools and its decision was “not honest.” Moyer said the Yazzie-Martinez ruling was limited to specific schools and specific sub-groups of students within those schools.

The 2018 Yazzie-Martinez ruling said New Mexico has failed to comply with state and federal laws regarding the education of “English Language Learning” and Native American students which resulted in an inadequate education system for New Mexican students thus violating the state constitution.

“It seems the state is trying to be heavy handed and take local control away by being more and more stringent about how local districts operate,” Moyer said. “I have no problem offering the services to students. Where the problem is that this is another poor attempt to answer a lawsuit with specific issues in specific schools, but not our school.”

He added that the additional cost of the extended year will likely be promised at the state level, but like previous extended learning programs, the funding comes up short of the cost to districts.

Clovis Municipal Schools Superintendent Renee Russ said politicians who have been trying for years to extend the regular school year may be more successful pushing their agenda in the upcoming session because of the learning loss experienced during the pandemic.

“In prior years, the conversation has been around requiring students to attend up to 25 additional days with no regard for whether a given district was already exceeding the minimum number of hours required by law,” Russ said.

Russ said this year the conversation has shifted to hours rather than days.

“It will be interesting to see what local control and flexibility will be included in the language of the proposed legislation,” Russ said.

Russ said her position is that more is not better.

“Better is better,” Russ said. “Attending school longer is no guarantee that learning outcomes will improve and mandating a one-size fits all remedy of statewide extended learning is not the answer.”

Russ said there are many things to consider and to make adjustments for when addressing student academic performance.

“Each school and district has unique challenges that require unique solutions,” Russ said.

There is no “silver bullet” solution that can be mandated from the state that will be appropriate in every district or in every community according to Russ.

“The push for extending learning stems is grounded in old research from K-3+ programs in the 1990’s,” Russ said.

Russ believes the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit is unrelated yet is a convenient topic for extended learning proponents to wrap into their current argument.

Johnnie Cain, Superintendent of Portales Schools believes Fort Sumner’s Moyer is correct.

“I think there is a move to add time to the school year across the state,” Cain said.

“I know the Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC) is in support of adding the equivalent of 10 days, 60 hours to the calendar as is the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC).”

Cain would rather the time be added in terms of hours rather than days as it would allow districts to be more creative with their calendars.

“As far as whether it is necessary depends upon who you speak with,” Cain said. “Adding more time of just doing the same thing will not make a difference. Making a better use of the time we have now would make just as much of a difference if not more.”

Cain said Portales Schools already has a committee working on a plan for an extended school year and in late January or early February there will be open forums for the community to attend to provide their opinions.

The DeBaca County News contributed to this report.