Fresno schools to add extra 30 minutes of instruction time to school day next year

Fresno Unified schools will add an extra 30 minutes to each school day in the fall as teachers and students prepare to make up for any learning lost during the coronavirus shutdown.

Speaking at a news conference Friday, Fresno school leaders announced new details of their plans for next school year when most students are expected to return to in-person classrooms full time.

The school year will also begin two days earlier than usual and end one day later this upcoming school year. Students are expected to begin the first day of school on Aug. 12.

Superintendent Bob Nelson also said FUSD would add more teachers in key subjects like math and language arts, including at least one new ninth grade English teacher at each of the district’s high schools.

Students who have experienced “unfinished learning” or who are seeking to recover credits will have more options and more resources.

Nelson also said there will be more resources for English Learner students, including opportunities for “English-proficient” students to earn money helping new students.

FUSD plans to expand after school programs, allowing more students to participate without being placed on a waiting list.

It remained unclear Friday whether students would still be required to wear face masks next year. Nelson said FUSD is waiting for updated guidance from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

Social Emotional support

Officials said additional social and emotional supports would be available, a vital component of the return to full-time instruction for students and teachers who struggled with isolation and other challenges during the height of the pandemic.

Nelson said the district plans to reduce classroom sizes at elementary schools by hiring more teachers.

Online learning will also be available for students that remain concerned about safety. However, parents must chose whether they want their children to attend in-person classes or online classes, there will no longer be a hybrid or simultaneous teaching.

Only about half of the district’s more than 73,000 students chose to return to classrooms this year.

“There is a great deal of inertia of getting people back into the school that we are going to need to overcome. Kids access to nurses and health services has never been of more interest than during the pandemic,” Nelson said.

Every elementary site will have a social emotional support worker onsite.

“We’ve been really working on those over the last five months through our budgeting process. These are the programs that are going to help our students get back to where we were at before the pandemic,” FUSD Trustee Claudia Cazares said during the news conference.

Each school will also have a nurse or health professional on campus daily, a departure from pre-pandemic practices where school nurses handled multiple campuses each week.

“We really don’t know the totality of the (COVID-19 shutdown) impact,” Nelson said. “So we are just planning that all kids will need help, and we are planning accordingly.”

This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 12:46 PM.