School day extended to beat $750,000 fine

Marisa O’Neil

The state Board of Education on Thursday approved a request by the

school district to waive a $750,000 penalty for not providing enough

instructional time to Middle College High School students in the

2001-02 school year.

To offset the 30 hours lost that year, the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District agreed to add 1,800 instructional minutes this

academic year and next. The additional time breaks down to roughly 10

minutes a day for the next two years.

“The state gave us two options,” district spokeswoman Jane Garland

said. “But when we get a choice between $700,000 and a little extra

time, we chose the time.”

Middle College sits on Orange Coast College’s campus and serves

high school juniors and seniors who take high school and college

courses. Because of its unique structure, Garland said, the district

thought it was an alternative high school.

In 2002, after operating under that assumption since it opened

four years earlier, the district found out that the state considered

it a regular high school.

As a regular high school, it was required to have 64,800

instructional minutes each year, not the 54,000 it had been giving.

When the district realized the discrepancy, Garland said, it reported

it to the state.

The state only holds districts accountable for the year such a

problem is reported, so the district did not have to make up any

previous time lost to students.

After the two-year make-up period is over, the school will return

to 64,800 minutes from 66,600.

To make up the time, Garland said, the school shortened the time

between classes. The start and end of the school day remains the

same.

Many of the students who missed the extra 10 minutes a day,

however, have already graduated.

“We do have a new group of children who have to run a little

faster because the last group got more time,” she said.

Students at the school know about the extra time, senior Mandy

Carsten said. Now, she has five minutes between her classes instead

of 10-minute changes.

“It was nice to have that 10 minutes,” Carsten said. “We could sit

down and relax and talk how much that class sucked or get ready for

the next one.”