Ask NOW: Do Tosa students spend more days in school than required?

Washington Elementary School second-grader Cole Esser completes a classroom exercise earlier this year. Students in Wauwatosa public schools attend school for 180 days each year, as required by the state.

Washington Elementary School second-grader Cole Esser completes a classroom exercise earlier this year. Students in Wauwatosa public schools attend school for 180 days each year, as required by the state. Photo By Peter Zuzga

March 11, 2014

Is there a rumor you've heard that you would like to track down? Is there something in the city — like playground equipment or a pothole — that needs to be fixed? Rick Romano answers some of the mysteries of life in Wauwatosa and helps solve everyday problems.

Are Wauwatosa students attending too many days of school?

Issue: A reader, after talking to a Wauwatosa School District teacher, said she wonders why students need to make up missed days because of the weather.

"The teacher mentioned that Wauwatosa students already attend school more days than what the state of Wisconsin requires," our reader wrote. "If this is true, why do we have to make them up?"

Status: School Superintendent Phil Ertl said Wauwatosa students attend the required 180 scheduled days of school. This year, he said, any missed days were scheduled to be made up Feb. 17, March 14 and the Friday before Memorial Day.

"We schedule classes on professional development days when we need to," Ertl said. "When we have to, we can make up those professional development days in summer or it could be in online development sessions."

Ertl said the 180 required days of class has not changed in his nine years in Wauwatosa or in the 14 years he has served overall as a superintendent in Wisconsin.

"We would like to start in August, but we are not allowed to," Ertl said, noting some 60 percent of students already are involved in extracurricular activities during August prior to the school year start in September.

Submit your question by sending an email to news@cninow.com.

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