FAIRMONT - Beginning Monday, Fairmont Area Schools will lengthen its school days by 15 minutes.
The school board approved the change Tuesday to regain instructional time lost to weather-related closings.
Superin-tendent Butch Hanson said determining how many days students are in class is a three-step process.
"We must have as many school days for our students as we had in the 1996-1997 school calendar," he said. "Our current calendar calls for 177 school days. We have met that requirement quite handily."
Secondly, there are a certain number of hours of instructional time required to receive state funding. Hanson said that requirement is also met by the calendar.
The third requirement for determining how many student contact hours are necessary has to do with the teacher contract. Teachers are contracted to work for 184 days, not including vacation or holidays.
"The decision is a local one on how we address these items," Hanson said.
Weather closings have cost the district six days since December, not including the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which was scheduled as a day off, then added as a makeup day, then snowed out.
March 11, April 1 and April 5 have been integrated into the schedule, so students will have class on those days. Good Friday, April 2, is still a day off for students.
For each of the remaining three makeup days, the district has chosen to add 15 minutes per day for 20 days.
Hanson has worked with teachers, staff and the bus company, and most agree this arrangement is the best option.
"One of the benefits of this calendar," Hanson said, "is it still does leave the possible option that if worst-case scenario comes along and we get more days off, we would still be able to make up a couple of those days on June 7 and 8."
Each building is responsible for adjusting its schedule to meet its needs, whether that involves adding a few minutes to each class period or adding an additional 15-minute block at the end of the day.
In other business Tuesday, the school board voted to allow the district to take out a line of credit through Associated Bank in Minneapolis.
The credit line is a result of the state delaying aid payments between March 15 and April 15. Fairmont Area Schools will have $1.67 million held back, with expected payback on May 30.
Besides the payment delay, school districts are facing a tax change as well as a shift in how they get state aid. In prior years, districts received 90 percent of their aid during the school year and 10 percent after. That has been changed to 77 percent during the year and 23 percent after.
The shift means the district will need to utilize dollars from local property taxes in lieu of aid dollars.
"This is the third impact on cash flow that has taken place," Hanson said. "It has put us in the situation that requires borrowing. Our fund balance isn't even enough to cover those shifts."
The interest rate on the credit line will not be set until the credit is approved, but has an upper limit of 2.95 percent. If the district is able to get by without borrowing there is no penalty.