KTEN.com Sherman Denison Ardmore News Weather SportsOklahoma Lawmakers Propose Three Days be Added to the School Year

Oklahoma Lawmakers Propose Three Days be Added to the School Year

A proposed law in Oklahoma could extend the school year by three days. Parents and staff aren't upset with adding days to the school year, but rather where lawmakers are proposing these three days come from. KTEN's Meredith Saldana reports.

The House Education Committee passed the bill Wednesday, and has taken the next step and passed it on to the Full House. The proposed bill would convert three teacher in-service training days into educational days for students.  

Dr. Ruth Anne Carr, the Ardmore Superintendent, had this to say, "I do think that we need some additional days but our teacher professional days are extremely important. Very, very valuable to us and, I think it would put an additional burden on our teachers. They already give a lot of their afternoons and their summers to do professional development and this would only just increase that."     

Oklahoma teachers are required by state law to take 15 hours of training a year and these hours are done during their in-service days. Teachers are only given five of these teacher in-service days a year, one of which is used right before school starts and another at the end of the year.

With this proposed bill the remaining three days will be taken away for educational days, leaving the teachers high and dry.  

Also being proposed, that the school week be cut down to four days and hours be added to those days to replace the fifth day being removed.

Dr. Ruth Anne Carr says, "I am not a big proponent of additional hours at this time. I think that families have a difficult time by the time they get children home and get some homework, do piano lessons or athletic activities that our children are really almost stressed as far as a time crunch."

How do parents feel about shortening the week and extending the days? 

Paul Wilburn, father of two in Ardmore says, "There's no way. They're gonna lose their attention span. They can barely hold it from school to 3 pm but to 5 pm?  That would be horrible."

Not only was this a concern with parents, school officials also said children learn best in the morning and adding hours at the end of the day would not be beneficial.

One final concern parents have is without school on the fifth day parents who work Monday thru Friday will have to find alternative childcare.

Meredith Saldana, KTEN News.