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School staff say new state 900-hour requirement will require plan updates to count field trips and meetings
Summary
District staff told the Lisbon School Committee that a new state law requires school units to certify 900 instructional hours per year and recommended adding programs such as Nature's Classroom, morning meetings, kindergarten discovery learning and targeted study halls to the comprehensive education plan so the hours count.
District staff told the Lisbon School Committee on April 27 that a new state law requires school administrative units to certify 900 instructional hours per school year and that the district will add language to its comprehensive education plan to ensure local programs are counted.
"There has been a law passed that requires each school administrative unit to ensure and certify that they are providing 900 instructional hours in a year for students," said the staff member presenting the plan. She said the law text specifies what counts as instructional time and that the district plans to explicitly include programs such as Nature's Classroom (a 4th-grade field program), daily morning meeting time used for SEL and some high-school study halls intended as academic support.
Committee members asked how Lisbon's daily schedules compare with the new statewide calculation. The presenter said the 900 hours divided by 175 days comes to about 5 hours and 15 minutes per day; she reported the middle school already averages about six instructional hours per day and the high school about 5.5. The presenter noted some elementary grade schedules had previously fallen slightly short when certain activities were not counted.
The committee did not take a formal vote on the plan updates at the workshop; staff said it will draft language to amend the comprehensive education plan and bring it back for committee review.
