Sorry, but don't believe the lies. The school systems have more control. They can lengthen the school day by 15 minutes per day and get somewhere around 11 extra days off. Or they could do 5, 6, 7 extra minutes...it's up to the system. As long as they meet the minimum, which was changed to hourly from daily, and as long as they meet the start and end dates, the decision of when school is and is not in session is up to the local system. If systems wanted kids to have 12 hour days and only go to school 130 days a year, theoretically, they could do that.
bamacon, your system was not told by anyone at the state level that your system could NOT do that. It is the law. The old, "blame it on Montgomery" trick is on I have started questioning every time I hear it since I have been a public school teacher. I can't tell you how many times I've called ALSDE, then called BS on the county system trying to blame ALSDE. What your system may have been told is that teachers are still paid based on 187 day contracts, so they would still have to come even if the kids were at home.