HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) – The Harrisonburg City school board approved a plan at last night’s work session to add extra time to each day at the end of the day to make up for weather days for elementary schools.

The plan included adding 15 minutes to each day to reach the required hours for elementary schools. This will start on February 3rd to give parents and guardians time to plan ahead in terms of afterschool childcare.

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Joy Blosser said it would be proactive in case of future weather days.

“Right now, for elementary we are at 983.67 hours, and we need 990,” said Dr. Blosser. “So did we want to add on just enough time at the end of the day to get us back to 990 or did we want to be proactive in case there’s additional weather. We chose to look at being proactive.”

Discussion and data will determine what students will be working on in those 15 minutes. The vote for the additional time was unanimous.