The Austin Public Schools board added a half-day to the district’s school year.

The board changed Wednesday, March 12, into a full day to make up snow days taken this year. Austin has had five school days thus far this school year.

From a classroom perspective, Austin isn’t obligated to make up snow days. Minnesota requires at least 935 hours of elementary class time and 1,020 hours of middle and high school class time. Austin is far above the state-mandated classroom time.

Yet the district also builds three snow days into teacher contracts before requiring teachers to make up any lost time. Those contracts are the catalyst behind the decision.

Austin Superintendent David Krenz said the move would help students to have the most instructional time possible during the year.

“We will continue to review that,” he said. “It’s very difficult with the limited calendar options we have at this point, but we’re looking at other options.”