photo by: Journal-World

Lawrence Public Schools district offices pictured in April 2021.

At a hastily called school board meeting on Friday, the Lawrence school district announced that it had revised its just-released plan to address make-up time for inclement weather this year, most notably restoring early-release Wednesdays for students in middle and high schools.

The original schedule released Thursday, which reportedly upset many students and which the district acknowledged did not involve the district’s teachers and other unions, was meant to account for missed instructional minutes due to four snow days this school year. The state requires 1,116 instructional hours for the district to remain in compliance and accredited, and the district works with a state auditor to ensure such compliance.

After the outcry over the first schedule, including concerns over violating teacher contracts and upsetting family schedules, the certified negotiations team met for several hours on Friday to devise a new schedule, which was presented to the board late Friday afternoon, just as the district was beginning its weeklong spring break.

The new schedule restores early-release Wednesdays for middle and high schools.

For middle schools, 5 minutes will be added to the beginning of each day beginning March 18, at which time the school day will be from 8:10 a.m. to 2:56 p.m.

Middle schoolers will also attend full days during the last week of school, May 20-24, except for early-release Wednesday and that Friday, which will be a half day.

April 12 will be a professional development day instead of a work/plan day for teachers.

The two high schools’ schedules will differ somewhat because their normal schedules already differ slightly.

Free State High School will add 6 minutes to the end of each school day beginning March 18, making the school day go from 8 a.m. to 3:16 p.m. (and 1:26 p.m. on Wednesdays).

Free State students will also attend full days on the last week of school, May 20-24, except for that Wednesday.

Lawrence High School students will attend full days on the last week of school, from 8 a.m. to 3:10 p.m., except for Wednesday.

A timeline of events that led to the changes is available on the district’s website.

April 15 had already been built into the school calendar as an inclement weather make-up day.