Green Forest schools catching a break from weather with 4-day week

Mother Nature and Mondays have been good to the Green Forest School District so far this winter.

While some school districts in Northwest Arkansas are nearing double digits in the number of snow days so far, Green Forest — thanks to its four-day schedule — only has two make-up days so far.

Mondays have gotten the brunt of winter weather in recent weeks, including this week, but with school not in session on that day at Green Forest, the district has dodged the bullet for the most part.

“We’ve only had to use two thus far, so we’re good,” superintendent Matt Summers said. “On the west end of, districts like Fayetteville, Bentonville, Springdale, they’re up to six days,” Summers said Friday, Jan. 19, three days before those three districts took their seventh snow day with Monday’s icy weather. “But the first two storms that came through we weathered because they hit here at 8:30 or 9 in the morning and we were already at school. With the sun in the afternoon it warmed up. It hit further west right at drive time, 6:30 to 7:30 in the morning and those districts had to take those days.

“And then the one storm hit on a Monday and since we’re off on Mondays, it only affected us on Tuesday and Wednesday. We’re very fortunate to be on that number two.

“We joke about that quite often. We hope every snowfall comes on Saturday or Sunday and we can be back in business on Tuesday. That’s probably wishful thinking.

“At two days there’s not really a worry. It’s when you get into double digits of missing 10, 12 days. Then it starts getting really, really complicated. Right now we’re sitting pretty.”

Districts are required to have five snow days built into their calendar and Green Forest’s are tacked on to the end of the school year in May. How the two current snow days, and anymore the rest of the season, are made up is still up in the air, Summers said.

“It’s not just a superintendent decision,” he said. “We’re polling faculty and families and the board is who passes a resolution to amend the calendar.”

In previous years, districts could use Alternative Methods of Instruction days where students could do assignments from home and districts didn’t have to use a snow day.

AMI days, which were authorized by a 2017 state law, were popular among many districts during winter weather months and became well-known in every district during COVID-19.

Last year, districts in the county had anywhere from seven to nine AMI days because of weather — which all counted toward the mandated 178-day school year. Not anymore.

When the state legislature passed the LEARNS Act, a $50,000 salary minimum was enacted for all teachers with the stipulation that districts across the state would receive state money to help support those raises. However, the LEARNS Act states that for districts to be eligible for funds to implement the salary increases “a public school district shall be open for on-site, in-person instruction for at least” 178 days or 1,068 hours.

The district could opt to make up any snow days on Mondays and not have to extend the school year, Summers said in November.

But with students in class longer each day because of the four-day week, he wasn’t sure if that was the best option.

The district’s last day of school, without adding any snow days to the end of the year, is currently scheduled for May 22.