Wenatchee School District is currently reviewing several bills on how to increase educational hours from 1,000 hours to 1,080. The chosen bill will be implemented no sooner than the 2014-2015 school year.

“The legislature is still reviewing these bills [on how to increase educational hours].  Several alternative bills have been introduced and not decided on yet,” said WSD’s Lisa Turner, Director of Human Resources. “We will wait until the legislative session is complete and we have clear direction before making any changes to any schedules.”

There is some internal discussion between the WSD officials as to whether this schedule will affect the 2014-15 year, or the 2015-16 year.

“The legislature adopted 1,080 in 2009 for implementation no sooner than the 2014-2015 school year,” said Les Vandervort, Chief Financial Officer for the WSD. “The legislature is currently debating a new bill that would delay implementation until the 2015-2016 school year. A district wide average [for educational hours in school] could be used to meet the 1,080 threshold. The [WSD school] board did approve the new [bell] schedule.”

The current legislative session is scheduled to be decided by the middle of March.  “The Senate has already approved the deferral to 2015-2016.  So right now, it’s a tossup whether the 1,080 [rule] will be deferred,” Vandervort said.

“They’re still thinking on how to implement [the rule],” English teacher and Wenatchee Education Association High School representative Danielle Shafer-Cloke said. “There are several different ways to interpret how it may work. Legal bills could impact the rule’s effect as well. SB 5982 would eliminate late start and early releases, and SB 6082 would delay the rule [until the next year], and late-start Mondays would count towards instructional hours.”

Schafer-Cloke was unsure about the benefits of this new rule. “If the K-6 grades are all going to have just 1,000 hours, and 7-12 has 1,080, then the adjustment for the sixth graders going into seventh grade is going to be difficult. It’s going to be a sudden and substantial increase for kids that aren’t very old.”