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Board approves waiver for Cabot school Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006 By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The state Board of Education on Monday voted to approve two waivers allowing Cabot junior high students who lost their school in a fire to attend fewer days this school year. One waiver allows the students to receive less than the state-mandated 178 days of instruction a year. The other allows ninth-graders to delay their school year by five days and seventh- and eighth-graders to delay school by 10 days. A faulty light fixture destroyed the Cabot Junior High North building Aug. 10. The eight-year-old building held about 1,200 students in grades seven through nine. Along with requiring 178 instructional days a year, state law also requires schools to begin no earlier than Aug. 19 and no later than Aug. 26. The board, however, can grant waivers for "very exceptional or emergency circumstances such as a contagious disease outbreak, inclement weather or other acts of God." Ninth graders at Cabot Junior High North started school Aug. 28th, a week after the rest of the district. They are attending classes in four portable buildings already on the neighboring Cabot High School campus and 24 other empty classrooms in the old high school science and business buildings. Seventh- and eighth-graders returned to school in portable buildings on Sept. 5. Julie Thompson, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said Monday the waivers were approved contingent upon the district submitting plans detailing how the ninth-graders and those eighth-graders taking high school credit courses can meet high school graduation requirements. |
