FRANKLIN
The Franklin City Public School Division Board has approved a calendar for the 2015-16 year with 1,136 instructional hours.

The amount of time in the classroom is up by 56 hours from what the previous superintendent prepared for the 2014-15 school year. Schools are required to by Virginia Code to provide students with 990 hours. If a school drops below this number of hours, it could negatively affect funding.

To counterbalance weather-driven loss of instructional hours, schools often prepare well over the required number of hours. Franklin has also set 13 days aside that are designated to be used for making up loss of instructional time, as needed. Four of the days are set as full teacher workdays, three of them in June and the other in February.

Seven of the days, spread throughout the year, are early closing days that could become full days.

Of the 23 total holidays throughout the 10-month period, three are on the table: Veteran’s Day, President’s Day and Memorial Day.

Starting in August, there are 15 days set aside as teacher workdays or for professional development.

Convocation is set for Aug. 25; the three schools will have open houses for registration on Sept. 3; and students report to school on Sept. 8.

The first semester ends on Jan. 29, and on June 16, the second semester ends. These days, respectively, are also when the second and fourth nine-week periods end. The first nine-week period ends on Nov. 6, and the third nine-week period ends on April 15.

There are two days on the calendar with early closings set aside for parent-teacher conferences: Nov. 18 and April 27.