In the wake of winter weather, many school districts in Arkansas told students to stay home this week.
In the past, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, districts would fill this time with Alternative Methods of Instruction, or AMI. This could include Zoom classes or other forms of virtual learning.
Last year, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law a package of education legislation known colloquially as Arkansas LEARNS. The law effectively ended AMI for public schools.
“A public-school district shall be open for on-site, in-person instruction for at least: One hundred seventy-eight (178) days; or One thousand sixty-eight (1,068) hours,” the law reads. It explains that funding for teacher salaries can be withheld from districts that do not adhere to the mandatory minimum.
Last year, Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, reached outto Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office for clarification on this part of the law. The request listed three questions; Mayberry asked if AMI days were banned outright, if schools can still offer virtual classes and if AMI days count toward the 178 mandated days for each school year.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Kelly Summerside, writing on behalf of Griffin, responded to her questions. She said yes, districts can still offer AMI days if they want to, provided they still have schools open for 178 days. When asked if a school could count AMI days toward the total 178 days, Summerside said it was likely, but that the law still needed clarification.
“Its language suggests that any days or hours during which a school district is not open for ‘on-site, in-person instruction’ would not count toward this requirement,” the opinion said. Later it said, “legislative clarification is certainly warranted.”
Gov. Sanders’ spokesperson Alexa Henning said there is a lot of “misinformation” about AMI days.
“LEARNS did not eliminate AMI days,” she said, arguing that districts can still choose to implement AMI days but that they won’t count toward the 178 days mandated by law.
“The data is clear that kids learn better when they are physically in school. It’s vital for kids to be in school and learning,” Henning said.
The Arkansas Department of Education said the exact same thing.
“It’s vital for kids to be in school and learning,” a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, reads. “As science and our experience in the pandemic have shown, in-person learning is superior to online instruction.”
Sen. Greg Leding, D-Fayetteville, said this presents a double standard.
“I could probably argue for or against AMI days,” he said. “My bigger thing is it shouldn’t be one set of rules for both public and private schools.”
Under Arkansas LEARNS, some private schools get public funding but don’t have to follow the same district rules.
“LEARNS didn’t do away with AMI days, but LEARNS did poison the well,” Leding added.
Schools have to make up inclement weather days at the end of the year, though some districts build a few days into their schedule to account for this. For example, the Little Rock School District has built in six inclement weather days at the end of the current school year’s calendar.
With a week’s worth of snow days so far this year, many school districts will likely continue classes into June.
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The first availability report for Arkansas basketball’s (11-3, 0-1 SEC) matchup against the No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels (12-2, 1-0 SEC) was released by the Southeastern Conference on Tuesday.
Introduced over the offseason, availability reports will be filed one day before contests, with an additional update on game day.
According to the SEC, student-athletes will be designated as “available”, “probable”, “doubtful” or “out” for their next game. For additional clarity on game day, student-athletes will be designated as “available”, “game time decision” or “out.”
Below is the first availability report of the week ahead of Arkansas’ game against Ole Miss, which will tip off at 6 p.m. CT at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville:
The Arkansas Razorbacks (11-3, 0-1 SEC) can bounce back if they defeat the No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels (12-2, 1-0 SEC) on Wednesday at Bud Walton Arena.
Led by second-year head coach Chris Beard, the Rebels are off to a solid start to the 2024-25 season. Ole Miss owns wins over teams such as BYU, Purdue, Louisville, Georgia and others with a veteran-filled squad. Ole Miss is coming off a 20-12 (7-11 SEC) overall season that saw it miss the NCAA Tournament.
“Ole Miss is one of those teams that is really tough,” associate head coach Chin Coleman said Tuesday. “They recruit to their system. Another game in which we’re going to have to be more physical than them. We’re going to have to obviously do a better job on the offensive glass. They’re systemic in terms of their motion and everybody is a weapon. They can go one-on-one from one through five. So they have a balanced attack in terms of their offense because of their style of play.
“So it’s going to be a challenge for us. But for me and for us as a staff and our team, no matter whether you win or you lose it’s always about our response. So I’m excited about our response. I was excited about our response in our first possession of practice. I’m equally excited for our first possession of practice today and so on and so forth. Just a challenge. Another challenge. We’ve got to be more prepared for this one than we were the last time out.”
A major storyline entering this game is the chess-move battle between John Calipari and Beard, who was reportedly one of Arkansas’ top head coach candidates to replace Eric Musselman during the offseason.
“(Beard’s) been running that motion since Texas Tech,” Coleman said. “Probably got a little bit of that from the late great Bobby Knight. That motion is unpredictable. The freedom of movement, cutting, screening. It’s hard to scheme against. It’s hard to scout. It’s hard to put a scout team through that. There is no absolute. When you have a random based offense that you’ve got to guard the whole game, you’ve got to trust your rules. You’ve got to be connected.
“You can’t break. You’ve got to be alert. You’ve got to know you are going to be screened, but at the same time you’ve got to watch the ball because here comes a guy driving. They’ve got playmakers all over the floor with one through five. Their fives are like fours. Their fours are like threes. When you have multiple guys on the floor that can dribble, pass and shoot, it’s tough to defend against.”
After a non-conference schedule filled with middling crowds, Coleman said he’s ready for Arkansas fans to unleash Bud Walton Arena into its full form for the SEC home opener.
“We need the fans to support the Razorbacks the way that they’ve supported them, what we’ve seen when we were with the opposing team,” Coleman said. “Now we’re family. We’re Razorbacks. We wanted it to feel the way it’s felt when we’ve come in here as an opposer, as the enemy. We need the building rocking. We need the building turned all the way up to help our men feed off that energy.
“I’ve seen it before. I’ve witnessed it before, where you can’t even call out… I’m normally one of the loudest persons in the building on the sidelines. Our guys hear me when I scream out different calls and when I scream out different schematics. Everybody hears me. I have been in this building before where I have not been heard, so that is what I need for that building, and what we need for that building to feel like.”
Here’s a closer comparison of Arkansas’ and Ole Miss’ stats, efficiency ratings, projected lineup for the Rebels and more ahead of Wednesday’s game, which is set to tipoff at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2:
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