By DAVID VITRANO

News Editor

RESERVE—The St. John School Board has approved a schedule aimed at making up instructional time lost during Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

The bulk of the plan consists of adding 10 minutes to the beginning and end of each school day for a specified length of time.

Except for Fifth Ward Elementary, all K-8 schools will follow this modified schedule from September 29 through March 12.

Fifth Ward and West St. John High will follow the new schedule from September 29 through April 7.

Lastly, East St. John High School will be on an extended schedule from September 29 through December 19.

Additionally, December 19, which was to be a half day, will be a full day at all schools.

Usually, a proposal must be presented to the board before it can be added to the agenda and voted on, but the board waived policy in this case so the measure could be put in place expeditiously and the students could receive the maximum number of instructional hours prior to the LEAP and GEE tests, which will be administered in April.

School administration and transportation had approved the measure before the meeting.

“We apologize for the inconvenience these changes will cause for many, but after reviewing our options, extending the school day for the next few months proved to be the least disruptive and least costly solution to our dilemma,” said Superintendent Courtney Millet.

She explained that another option the district considered was making up time during the Thanksgiving Holidays.