The devastation of Hurricanes Helene and Milton resulted in 11 days of missed school for Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS). To bounce back from this setback, on Oct. 23, the county revised the Student Academic Calendar for the 2024-2025 school year, making some alterations to previous days off and the times of the grading periods.
On Wednesday, Dec. 4, nearly a month and a half later, Robinson released their New Second Semester Bell Schedule to help make up more of the missed instructional hours. Robinson Principal David Brown shared an update with Robinson on Dec. 4 regarding changes in class period lengths.
“Our students missed 3,000 minutes of class time during the hurricanes. In addition to adjustments to the Student Academic Calendar, we must now extend all our traditional class periods to 50 minutes each and all our IB class periods must be at least 84 minutes each,” Brown said.
Since Robinson will not be caught up with the required instructional minutes, starting Jan. 17, 2025, an additional five minutes will be added to the end of each school day to contribute to the missed time. Following this change, school will end at 3:30 p.m., instead of the previous 3:25 p.m.
“This will ensure our students have the required time needed to earn credit for their courses,” Brown said.