Extended school year for some Chino Valley students

The Chino Valley Unified School District approved on Monday the extension of the school year for about a month at two schools because students were not in class for the minimum number of minutes due to district error.

But one Sacramento lawmaker has presented a proposal to make the students make up the school days next year. Assemblymember Curt Hagman, formerly mayor of Chino Hills, is interested in helping Chino Valley Unified School District students avoid having to attend 34 more days of school during the summer.

Hagman said he is fast-tracking his appeal to the California Department of Education to allow students to make up the lost minutes at Rolling Ridge and Dickson Elementary Schools next year.

Hagman said he is also going to pursue emergency legislation to the governor's office and the assembly to see if a bill or other legislative vehicle could help the school district.

"With proposed budget cuts to the school district, if kids don't show up to school (during the summer), the district loses (daily attendance) money on top of it," Hagman said. "It's a terrible situation. I'm hoping we can help find a way to a solution."

Attendance will be mandatory during a 34-day extension for students in fourth through sixth grades at Rolling Ridge and Dickson elementary schools. The ruling comes even though students at the two schools have met the academic and education time requirement for the school year, officials said.

During the 34 minimum days, the number of minutes that students were in class fell below the state requirement. The Education Code requires that the entire day be made up, not just the minutes that the classes fell short each day, district spokeswoman Julie Gobin said.

The extra school days, at four hours a day, will begin on June 15 after the regular school year concludes June 11 and will run to July 31.