HARRISONBURG, VA (Rocktown Now) – With Harrisonburg City elementary school days being 10 minutes shorter than their middle and high school counterparts, the school board is considering lengthening the elementary school day by 10 minutes.

Chief Academic Officer Dr. Joy Blosser explained to the board during Tuesday night’s meeting that the change would make it easier to make up for lost instructional time due to inclement weather.

She added that over 280 elementary school staff recently responded to a survey on the issue.

“The first question we asked was ‘Do you support adding school time to the end of the day,” and 80% of the respondents said yes.” Blosser said. “The next question was, ‘if we were to add time to the elementary school day, which would you support.’ And 93% of the respondents said 10 minutes.”

If approved, the elementary school day will increase five minutes in the morning and at the end of the day.

The school board will vote on the matter at its May 20th work session.