<p>With all the bad weather that has ravaged the US in the past weeks, there is a lot of talks about how to best make up lost time. </p>
<p>In certain districts, the decision has been to add 30 minutes per day to the school schedule for 50% of the lost time and abandon the balance. Others have canceled parents' conferences. Others have extended the school year. </p>
<p>While I am not certain if those 30 minutes will come with corresponding instruction or supervision, it seems that this might cause havoc for students with planned EC activities or shared transportation. </p>
<p>well, this week was certainly not a necessary vacation…not personally involved, but if it were me making the decisions, I would have pulled back days this week…from those districts that are off…</p>
<p>Otherwise, I don’t see how the 30 minutes will satisfy the state aid issue (which is what plagues school administrators with snow day issues)…you HAVE to have a certain minumum of days in school in each state to receive state aid; adding minutes to the school day won’t cut it…</p>
<p>Obviously, not optimal, but cutting out days of April vacation seems to be the only remaining option…if you extend school in some parts of NY/Nj, you are already into July; graduation arrangements have already been made…etc…</p>
<p>Have you even been to a mid-atlantic, non-air conditioned HS on the 2nd or 3rd floor in the end of June??? Not a pretty sight…</p>
<p>Our district “builds in” 5 snow days and ends school earlier or later than the original last day of school depending on whether we’ve had more or fewer snow days than planned for. It’s a PITA for scheduling early summer activities since you don’t know when the last day of school is going to be. </p>
<p>Sometimes states let schools “off the hook” for unusual numbers of missed days. </p>
<p>Our schools make liberal use of the 2-hour-delay or early-dismissal options, as both of those count as a day of school and don’t need to be made up. </p>
<p>As to what parents would prefer, there’s no easy answer. Whenever you take away scheduled vacation days there are people with pre-existing plans who will usually just have their kids skip.</p>
<p>You must be in an “hours of instruction” state like Kansas or Nebraska, as opposed to a state with a minimum number of days of instruction. </p>
<p>Since snow days can be pretty common up here where God’s Frozen Chosen live, we build them into the calendar. If a make-up day rolls around and there hasn’t been a dismissal (and believe me, things have to get really nasty before school gets called for a whole day), the kids get the days off.</p>
<p>In your case, I suspect there have been so many days off that the district is faced with really unpleasant options. An extra 30 minutes a day may be the least of a number of evils. School-related ECs will adjust. Kids with after school jobs will probably face the biggest headaches.</p>
<p>Our district builds in 2 days - if it doesn’t snow, kids go to school an extra two days. (I don’t think that has ever happened.) In addition to that they build on days onto the Memorial Day weekend (Friday and Tuesday). For every snow day beyond two they lose a day of that extended weeked. In 18 years of having kids in the school system I can only remember one year we got all five days of the Memorial Day weekend. Everyone knows not to count on having all five days, they are listed on the calendar as snow-make up days.</p>
<p>My younger son wished they had made up the snow days before the AP all his classes senior year were in vacation mode by the time Memorial Day rolled around. But we are stuck in school till the end of June because that’s when they schedule Regent’s Exams.</p>
<p>Texas was hit hard this year. We had 5 snow days and we only plan for 2 (and usually don’t ever take those). I understand that the districts are all petitioning Austin to waive the additional 3 days. Otherwise, I guess they will tack them on to the end of the school year. Our school year is supposed to end June 2 so a couple extra days won’t hurt too much (unless the AC isn’t working!)</p>
<p>Our district builds in six snow days; we have used eight. Last day of school was supposed to be May 18; it’s now May 20 unless the state legislature gives every district a reprieve. The state has done that before. It happened in 2007-2008 when most of Missouri was hit by an ice storm in early December. We had no power for a week and neither did many of the schools.</p>
<p>Our district also closes for extreme cold (with or without snow) because 75% of students wait for a bus outside–most a block from their home. If it is 10-below air temp or 20-below wind chill, school is closed. However, after the first eight snow days this year, the district went to a two-hour delayed start for extreme cold. The day still counted in the state’s eyes.</p>
<p>Our district builds in the days on the calendar and we most often use 1 if any. Because of the snow/ice that hit NC in early January we lost MLK, the Fri before Pres. Day weekend and President’s Day. Those holidays have been on the calendar for 2 years as potential make up days. I can tell you that MLK will NEVER be designated as a make up again - LOTS of pushback when it was announced. After those 3 days, we start losing our Spring Break. State law dictates our first and last day of school so those cannot be affected.</p>
<p>Our district builds in 5 extra days over what is required by PA. We missed a day in January and made it up on the scheduled end-of-semester day off. We were closed yesterday for snow, and I haven’t heard yet if we will be making it up. We don’t have a Feb break, and only have 3 days off in April around Easter, but at least one of those days is a designated snow make-up day.</p>
<p>What bugs me is that the 2 hour delay days, which we have had a lot of, count as a full day even though not much is accomplished because all the class periods are shorter, except for the lunch periods.</p>
<p>We build in 2 days, have used 5. Every district in north Texas has applied for a waiver. Rumors are rampant…we got the waiver, we didn’t get the waiver.</p>
<p>Because older D is taking 4 AP classes, I’d prefer the extra instuctional time every day, as soon as possible.</p>
<p>For future years, schedule Teachers’ Professional Development days for the end of the year after students are dismissed or before the beginning of the school year. Working parents will be helped as well since they won’t have to find childcare for those odd days here and there. For this year recognize the unusual year and let a few days go. I mean, it was the most snow ever recorded for many states, yes? Extroadinary circumstances? Or, how about add a few online assignments to be accomplished as families are able to by the end of the school year and let that be make up work.</p>
<p>We’ve had six snow days here this year. All have been added to our ending date in June (ending date is now June 17). Any more days will be taken away from the April vacation. This plan is fine with me. I believe full added days benefit the students far more than 30 minutes added on here and there. In our state, that isn’t allowed anyway.</p>
<p>We don’t have snow days here, but we have had wildfire days (sometimes a whole week off). Since the governor declared a state of emergency to cover the situation, the schools didn’t have to make it up.</p>
<p>And that was fine by me–kids seemed to do just fine in the grand scheme of things, even with the week of missed instruction.</p>
<p>I forgot to share what I would prefer to see. </p>
<p>Since I believe that the 30 minutes probably would amount to an extra free-period without any teaching, that should be out. Also there should be no waivers whatsoever for employees and staff. </p>
<p>What I’d like is to see schools using this obligation to make up the lost time via special weekly extended homework that represent reviews. The students could make up the time at home and during the weekend through this homework. The teachers would have to make up the time by grading the papers/work and provide the parents detailed commentaries.</p>
<p>Do you see this working for primary school students…prek through grade three?</p>
<p>That’s where I work and our primary school students also have to make up snow days. I’m not sure I see them doing “papers/work” at home without the instruction they need they are at the beginning of the “learning curve” in reading/writing/math.</p>
<p>Last year at my high school, we had a whole week of no school because of damages a really bad rain storm had made that previous Sunday night. They tried to get these days excused with the state but when this failed, we got a whole extra week of classes, with the last day of classes to be June 25th. The next town over was in school until the 29th. Goody.
This year, they might have to do the same. At my roommate’s previous high school, they cut down on Winter Break. They only had President’s Day off and Tuesday (today) and that was all. Who knows if they’ll have extra days added too.</p>
<p>I can’t see adding time to the end of the days…it just feels like wasted time. Our district “builds” in x number of snow days. Once those are exceed the additional days are simply added onto the end of the school year.</p>
<p>My high school has an online system where teachers can post announcements and also worksheets, power points, etc. When it looked like the snow was going to hit hard, they told us to take home all our books and sure enough I had assignments nearly every day, all due the day we returned, unless your neighborhood was hit by rolling blackouts.</p>
<p>In my district, we make up snow days at the end of the school year (June). If I were in charge (ahem), I would take away Easter Monday. We used President’s Day for one makeup day, thankfully, but students still had the Friday before the weekend off. I would have taken that one also.</p>
<p>My district has 182 student days, even though the state only requires 180. Since our last day of school is a Monday, I would waive that day. But the board would look at that as giving teachers a day of free wages, so that would never fly. But think about it, what kind of learning takes place on June 13th?</p>
<p>But I have heard parents in the district which I live, which is more upper middle class than the district I teach in, express concern that students may lose Easter Break, so that may give you some idea of what parents want.</p>