DELAVAN — The Delavan-Darien School District admits a mistake in the high school calendar this year and last year, but neither the superintendent nor the school board is pointing any fingers.
“We have an error, we revealed it and we’re correcting it,” said Steve Carlson, school board president.
After calling off school three days because of weather, district officials thought it prudent to check their calculations and make sure they were meeting state requirements for instructional time.
The high school came up short this year and last year, and the district added 41 minutes to each school day for to make up for the shortage this year.
Superintendent Wendy Overturf said she was not involved in the creation of either calendar—this year’s or last year’s—because she joined the district July 1. She said she doesn’t know how the mistake was made.
Overturf declined to say who is responsible for the error and whether there would be consequences for that person.
“I don’t know how it came about,” she said. “But I know it’s never going to happen again.”
Although state Department of Public Instruction records indicate Delavan-Darien High School had enough hours last year, Overturf said the DPI numbers are wrong.
She said she informed the DPI that the high school had a shortage of hours this year and last year.
Patrick Gasper, communications officer for the DPI, said if the error is egregious, the state could withhold funding.
“But that would probably require an intentional disregard (for the requirements),” he said.
Gasper said it’s not often that this happens.
Delavan-Darien’s school calendar is, in part, negotiated with the teachers union, and that sets the school days. But an administrator determines how the day is divided into instructional and non-instructional periods.
Carlson said the school board depends on the administration to create a school calendar that meets state requirements. He said it’s not the board’s responsibility to do that.
“I would not know how to calculate the minutes,” he said. “We rely on the people we hire to do their job.”
Overturf agreed.
“It’s up to the administration to have that pre-planned,” she said.
The school board will discuss the issue at its meeting Monday.