Makeups for snow could be painful in some counties

BECKLEY, W.Va. — Raleigh County School Superintendent Dave Price thought things were going exceedingly well.  Up until Feb. 16, his students had only missed three days of school for the weather and none of those had come before Christmas where the system typically has one or two. However, the storm which blew in that day changed everything.

“We thought we were in good shape, but we knew February is tough and March there’s always a pretty decent storm,” Price said. “We were just keeping our fingers crossed.”

Raleigh County missed two solid weeks of school, bringing their storm total to 13 days missed and others on delay.  The delays can be made up with accrued time. The system already has a normal school day which is a half hour longer than the required school day length.  However, the accrued time cannot be used for making up full days off.

“State law requires we get 180 in so whenever we miss we just reschedule on our non-instructional days,” he said. “We’ll continue to do that until we fill up all of those and we’ll look at state code again.”

Price added there’s a lot of controversy because when it comes to non-instructional days nothing is sacred, which includes the possibility of cutting into spring break or eliminating the week off altogether.   Price said he knows many have plans during the break, but he said the alternative is less exciting.

“Miners vacation is always the last week of June and first week of July.  A lot of people plan vacation that third and fourth week of June and right now, we’re potentially in school then,” he said. “We have to weigh the option, are we going to be in school the third week in June or in the first week of April.”

The ones hurts most are high school seniors.   Graduation days are solidified and cannot be moved. Any days tacked on to the end of the year will be lost days for those seniors.

Price said there are six “outside school environment days” they can use.  Afterward it’s into spring break or summer vacation to get the required 180 days of instruction.  Raleigh County isn’t alone.  A lot of counties hammered by the snow and ice are now starting at how to get in the required days and where they can fit them into the schedule.





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