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Longer school days ahead for Watauga students

Watauga County Schools logo
Courtesy Watauga County Schools
Students in Watauga County will have longer school days starting this year.

Watauga County students are in for longer hours as they go back to school on Monday.

The Watauga County Board of Education voted to extend the length of the school day back in April.

Elementary and middle school students will be in class for an extra 25 minutes each day. For high schoolers, it’ll be an extra ten.

The goal is to build up instructional time so the district can use fewer remote learning days in the event of inclement weather and school closures.

In a Watauga County Schools newsletter, Superintendent Leslie Alexander said she also believed the extra minutes would provide opportunities for “deeper learning, stronger relationships and increased student achievement.”

The change goes into effect this school year. More information about the new schedule can be found on the district’s website.

Amy Diaz began covering education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD in partnership with Report For America in 2022. Before entering the world of public radio, she worked as a local government reporter in Flint, Mich. where she was named the 2021 Rookie Writer of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, but truly got her start in the field in elementary school writing scripts for the morning news. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.