With ten two-hour delayed starts and two Snow Days, the Lewis-Palmer school district has no other choice but to increase the time spent at school or face an extended school year. Each year, 1,056 school instruction hours are required by the Colorado Department of Education. With the district running low on snow days, a modified schedule calling for longer school days is now necessary.

First introduced by both district and building administrators, this new plan for adding on 10 minutes to the school day is meant to help accumulate enough school minutes to prevent an extended school year.

Since Monday, March 9, 2015 school classes have begun at 7:35. For the first 5 minutes of class, daily announcements may be broadcasted. Due to difficulty of changing the district’s transportation routes and times, the announcements allow times for students who ride the bus to get to class before instruction begins.

Attendance will be recorded at 7:40am allowing those who will arrive on the bus around 7:30 am to have enough time to get to class.

A decision has also been made to cut 5 minutes from the students’ lunch hour making 3rd hour begin at 11:35 and 4th hour begin at 1:17

With the schedule adjusted slightly, Principal Brandl is confident that this schedule will be effective, yet the impact on students will hopefully be a minimum.