The North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale School District plans to temporarily extend the school day to make up for the six days of classes that were canceled earlier this year due to extremely cold temperatures.

Students in grades K-12 will be let out nine minutes later than usual every day between April 1 and May 28, school officials announced on the district's website. The school board voted to approve the extension at its March 25 meeting.

Extending students' time in the classroom would "allow the district to regain six additional hours of instructional time," without having to lengthen the school year into the second week of June, district officials said in an online statement.

"This will also mean that students who ride the bus home will get dropped off about nine minutes later," the statement read.

The district had previously converted two staff development and/or conference days into school days.

Anticipating criticism, district officials conceded that the plan "is not a perfect solution," but, ultimately, it's the best option for to meet the state's requirement of 1,020 classroom hours per year.

"Unfortunately, this has been a historic winter in Minnesota and while not ideal, we felt this solution, which didn't involve extending the school day further into June, was the least disruptive to families," officials said.

School hours between April 1 and May 28 will be:

  • 8:45 a.m. to 3:24 p.m. for Castle, Cowern, Eagle Point, Oakdale (including afternoon pre-kindergarten) and Webster elementary schools;
  • 9:15 a.m. to 3:54 p.m. for Carver, Richardson (including afternoon pre-kindergarten), Skyview and Weaver elementary schools;
  • 7:45 a.m. to 2:24 p.m. for John Glenn, Maplewood and Skyview middle schools;
  • 8:15 a.m. to 2:54 p.m. for North and Tartan high schools and the Harmony Learning Center;
  • 8:15 a.m. to 2:24 p.m. for the North St. Paul Community School 8:30 a.m. to 2:29 p.m. for the Next Step Transition Program.