Schools may need to add days

Erin Martin

Updated: Feb 22, 2014, 1:30 PM

Published: Feb 21, 2014, 2:10 PM

Area students are likely to face an extended school year thanks to cold and snow, unless new legislation under consideration by the Wisconsin State Senate Education Committee and State Assembly Committee on Education is approved and voted into law before the current legislative session ends in March.

The North Crawford, Seneca and Boscobel School Districts have used their available snow days. North Crawford is now short by three days of the 180 days required by state law. Seneca and Boscobel are each short by one day.

Each of the school’s board of supervisors will need to decide if they add days to the school year or if they cut time from the Easter break.

“Right now, I’m not suggesting we shorten the Easter break,” said North Crawford School District Administrator Dan Davies. “The kids need the break in April. They’re going stir crazy by then.”

North Crawford cancelled school five times due to the extreme cold, twice for snow, and once to allow students to attend the state volleyball championships in Madison.

If the board opts to extend the end of the school year and no additional cancellations are required, North Crawford students can expect the last day of school to fall on June 11.

Boscobel will probably extend their final day from June 3 to June 4.

In the event of additional cancellations, Seneca School District Superintendent Dave Boland said “We may add minutes or days, but that will be the board’s decision.”

Boland said that staff will be included in the conversation, since whatever the board chooses, it must not only satisfy the state requirements, but must also take into account the teaching contracts.

“We have sufficient hours of learning committed at the elementary and secondary levels, yet for further cancellations, we will have to add a day, likely in June, to the school schedule in order to compensate for each additional canceled day,” said Tom Woznicki, the Boscobel School District Superintendent.

Schools have to meet state requirements both in terms of days and in terms of hours spent in direct instruction.

These can produce varied results when a school loses a day. Prior to Monday’s snowstorm, while North Crawford was short by two days, they were only short two hours of their instructional requirement.

Wisconsin enacted the law stipulating both the number of days of school and the number of hours of direct instruction in 2009. Schools must schedule 180 days in the school year. Hours requirements are 437 hours of instruction in half-day kindergarten, 1,050 hours of instruction in grades K (full day) through 6, and 1,137 hours of instruction in grades 7 through 12.

Of the 180 scheduled days, five may be used for parent-teacher conferences and/or inclement weather.

Failure to comply with both requirements can result in withholding of state aid to school districts.

One exception that can occur to the day rule is if the governor cancels school. Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton did exactly that during the cold snap that also prompted area superintendents to cancel school, making the cancellation an “act of God’.

Governor Scott Walker did not make a similar call, so schools that have fallen behind on day or hour requirements must make them up.

The legislation currently under consideration by the Wisconsin State Senate Education Committee would eliminate the day requirements, but keep in place the hours requirements. SB 589 would also allow state aid for "interim sessions" and online courses scheduled during the summer by districts with year-round school calendars. It’s Assembly companion bill, AB749, is under consideration by the Wisconsin State Assembly Committee on Education, with a vote expected as early as Feb. 18.

If the bill is passed, the elimination of the 180-day requirement would be effective when Governor Scott Walker signs it, according to DPI spokesperson John Johnson. Other measures in the bill would take effect for the 2014-'15 school year.

“There is no law requiring schools to close due to cold, as far as I know,” said Stan Turben, North Crawford’s Transportation Director.

Turben used wind chill recommendations to make the call to cancel school. He noted 32 to 35 below zero wind chill can result in frostbite in about 10 to 15 minutes.

The worry isn’t about the kids being cold on the busses, according to Turben. The concern is exposure while waiting for the bus or while at school.

“We have four heaters on our big busses,” Turben said. “It used to just be two. I’ve had kids removing clothes because they were too warm. And I have kids that wear shorts year round.”

Cuts threatening use of local food

School lunches

SPRING CREEK CATTLE COMPANY is one of the local suppliers of food for the North Crawford Foodservice Program. Cancellation of federal funding will impact both the school district and the local agricultural business. Here, Bart and Amy Mitchell are seen with the beef cattle on pasture in the background. Spring Creeks Cattle Company is a family partnership between three brothers, their families, and their parents.

LFPA cuts_Spring Creek Cattle Company — SPRING CREEK CATTLE COMPANY is one of the local suppliers of food for the North Crawford Foodservice Program. Cancellation of federal funding will impact both the school district and the local agricultural business. Here, Bart and Amy Mitchell are seen with the beef cattle on pasture in the background. Spring Creeks Cattle Company is a family partnership between three brothers, their families, and their parents.

JORDAN DERRICK

Crawford County Independent & Kickapoo Scout

Updated: May 1, 2025, 12:38 PM

Published: Apr 30, 2025, 2:49 PM

With the federal government defunding programs around the country, it appears the North Crawford School District Food Service department will feel the impact.

Programs that fund food service at North Crawford, like the Local Food for Schools (LFS) and the Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant, had their funds frozen on March 7, when the USDA announced they would be terminating those programs.

For North Crawford, this means they have lost funding for purchasing food from local farms, something that the food service department has prided itself on. This summer, the district is covered for their efforts in serving local food.

25% sourced locally

North Crawford Food Service Director Jen Kapinus said in story published last summer that about 25% of the food served at the school is local, and specifically beef, pork, and apples are the most commonly locally sourced.

Now, that 25% is likely to drop, depending on the department’s next steps, which will have a large impact on the future of the school and the food service department.

Because of the timing of the USDA’s announcement, the food service department will have very little flexibility in the coming school year. In February, commodity orders are due, while the grant money comes in during May. Since, commodities were ordered with the assurance of getting this money in May, the department will have to figure out how to get the food still needed.

“We can no longer make the purchases we planned,” Kapinus said. “We planned ahead for two years, and there’s no money for that now.”

Having to find food to replace the planned purchases is not the only trouble with these cuts. It will also put a strain on the budget and the local farmers who provide for the program, and it will cause the department to move backwards in quality.

Cuts strain district

These cuts also put a strain on the district because they now need to work through existing suppliers to get food that they typically would not get from them.

“(The budget cuts) result in us having to look elsewhere,” North Crawford Superintendent Brandon Munson said.

It is not just the school district feeling the impact of the cuts. Good partnerships with our local families and farmers are being lost.

Although Munson believes it won’t hurt them too badly financially, Harry Young, of Young Family Farms LLC, who has been providing meat to the district since 2020, is sad to see these programs go.

Young noted the impact on the local economy. It supported farmers in the area and kept that money local.

“It was a good program,” Young said. “It got fresher food to the kids, that was more nutritious than what could be bought through the supply chain.”

Since higher quality food costs more, the department will have to compromise the quality of the food they are purchasing. Aside from the nutritional benefits of higher quality food, higher quality ingredients tend to make the food taste better.

While the department gets more local food than nearby schools, and students enjoy the food, many already feel that what they are being served is more processed than they would like it to be.

Kapinus believes that the reduction in quality will affect meal participation, which the program relies on to be able to serve the students the best they can.

Meal participation is often a domino effect. When more students eat the food, the program has a bigger budget to buy better food, which leads to more participation, but if the quality goes down, less students will eat, which will shrink the budget, which leads to even lower quality and, therefore, less participation.

Kapinus is hopeful that, through donations and possible fundraising, the department can continue to serve high-quality meals to students, but it will take a lot of hard work and support.

It can be difficult to rely on such variable methods, though. The district recently received a donation from a local farm, but there is so much to be cautious about with donations, especially with meat. It also is not consistent. Both fundraising and donations cannot be planned for ahead of time because if the needs are not met, the meals can’t be made.

Despite these hurdles, the department is doing what they can to serve the best meals with what is available to them, but there will have to be a decline in quality because of the cost of food.

“There will definitely be a compromise,” Kapinus said, “but we will continue to do as much scratch cooking as possible, and we are trying to find a happy medium between hyper-local and hyper-processed.”

Kapinus is working to prepare for the future, despite the funding losses, but it is unclear what will happen as time goes on, especially with the federal government aiming to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

With bad news after bad news for the food service department, a glimmer of hope has come in the form of school lunch debt forgiveness.

Through School Lunch Fairy, a national program based in Florida, The North Crawford School District will be receiving a donation to cover a portion of school lunch debt owed.

School Lunch Fairy is a charity organization that uses donated funds from all over the country to support school districts struggling with school lunch debt and sets up emergency lunch funds to provide struggling students with free lunches before they fall into debt.

With the donation this program will give the district, it puts the food service department in a better standing and relieves some of struggling students’ financial stress.

This program gives Kapinus and the food service department hope for where they are headed, even when things the future is unpredictable.