Some school districts are collecting state money for the time students spend changing classes, a member of the state Board of Education said Monday.

Board member Bob Schaffer said it is "quite a stretch" to count the five minutes between classes as part of the educational day.

The Colorado education department estimates that 32 of the state's 178 school districts will collect $145.2 million during the coming school year by counting passing periods as part of the academic day.

The state came up with that amount by determining what percentage of the total school day that students spend between classes. Then they applied that percentage to the amount of per- pupil funding a school district receives.

The state spends $5.1 billion annually on schools.

Schaffer, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 2008, will propose a rule change when the state board meets in September.

Current rules don't address whether districts can count the passing period as part of the school day, in effect leaving the decision to local school boards.

Educators said the money for passing periods must be viewed in the context of a school finance system that is riddled with anomalies.

For example, Jefferson County is owed $56 million of state and federal money for services to handicapped students - far more than the $39 million the state's largest district collects in state aid for passing periods, said Superintendent Cindy Stevenson.

The district is owed $12 million for vocational education and $13 million for transportation.

On top of that, the state's famously complicated school finance formula spits out different per-pupil funding levels for seemingly similar districts, Stevenson said.

"This is not simple," Stevenson said.

She called Schaffer's concern ridiculous.

State Board of Education member Evie Hudak, who represents Jefferson County, said, "If you start to nitpick it, you can get into a lot of discussions it's not worth our time to have."

School districts are required to provide 1,080 hours of instruction a year. That's 180 six-hour days in most districts.

State rules bar districts from counting lunch as part of the instructional day, but they may count up to 24 hours for parent- teacher conferences, teacher training time and safety-related student dismissals.

Schaffer made his complaint to fellow board members last week and in a letter to members of the state Legislature, including the Joint Budget Committee, which drafts the annual state spending bill. Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, the JBC member who follows school issues most closely, said the panel will consider Schaffer's complaint.

Made by the bell

School officials say state payments for passing periods are part of a larger school finance system riddled with problems. Five districts projected to receive the most money for passing periods this year:

• Jefferson County   $39 million

• Cherry Creek   $23.4 million

• Northglenn-Thornton   $18 million

• Colorado Springs   $14 million

• Fort Collins   $11 million