The State Board of Education Wednesday voted to set minimum instructional days for K-12 public schools. But the change is unlikely to significantly affect school calendars, including for districts on four-day weeks.

The decision satisfies a provision in the jumbled House Bill 521 and a followup bill, which together sent $1.5 billion to school districts for construction needs. The bills also directed the State Board to establish minimum instructional days for K-12 schools on top of existing minimum instructional hours — the baseline number of hours in a classroom each year. School districts must attest that they abide by the minimum days or the minimum hours to qualify for their share of the facilities funds. 

On Wednesday, the State Board voted unanimously to set a minimum of 152 instructional days, following a Department of Education recommendation. Starting in 2025-26, when the new minimum takes effect, districts can satisfy classroom time standards using days or hours.

All Idaho school districts currently abide by the minimum hours, rendering Wednesday’s decision largely moot, but it wasn’t entirely trivial — it closed the book on a tense few months for districts that operate on four-day weeks. An obscure provision in HB 521 included more stringent prerequisites for facilities funds, including minimum instructional days and teacher contract days. Lawmakers passed a followup bill, House Bill 766, to soften the requirements, after school leaders raised concerns that a high minimum of days could upend four-day calendars.

State superintendent Debbie Critchfield said she doesn’t expect the new minimum days to lead to major calendar changes. The Department of Education recommended 152 days after collecting data on school calendars across the state. More than half of Idaho’s 179 school districts and charter schools are on a four-day calendar, and the average four-day calendar includes 146 instructional days, the department found. 

“We felt that adding around a week would make sense,” Critchfeld said.

Critchfield also shared data comparing Idaho to 36 other states that have instructional time minimums. In Idaho, the average school calendar — among four- and five-day districts — has 159 instructional days. Nationally, 30 states require at least 180 instructional days and six states have minimums between 160 and 177 days. 

State Board member Kurt Liebich said he supported the department’s 152-day recommendation, but he worried that districts currently exceeding that number will be incentivized to reduce their instructional time. “I just don’t know how our students compete nationally with states where kids go to school for a month more than our kids,” he said.

Critchfield responded that districts with above-average instructional time could have already reduced their classroom time under the existing hourly standard. The current 990-hour minimum for high school instructional time is equivalent to about 152 school days. 

Critchfield also noted that other states include lunch and passing periods in their minimums while Idaho schools can only apply hours in the classroom toward the minimums. “Data is useful except when it doesn’t actually portray an apples-to-apples” comparison, she said. 

College and university presidents get raises

The State Board also unanimously approved 3% pay raises for three college and university presidents. Here’s what the presidents will earn in fiscal year 2025, which starts next month:

• University of Idaho President C. Scott Green: $479,192, up 3%.
• Boise State University President Marlene Tromp: $473,449, up 3%.
• Idaho State University President Robert Wagner: $420,000.
• Lewis-Clark State College President Cynthia Pemberton: $297,413, up 3%.

Wagner, hired in January, did not receive a raise. But he will be eligible for a potential pay increase next budget cycle, according to a State Board news release.