Students may -- or may not -- have to make up all those lost days of school

Feb 16, 2010 — Dover Post

Jeff Brown

Dover, Del. -

Local public school students who have enjoyed all those snow days off this school year may not have much to smile about come June.

Although it’s still too early to make any decisions, state law requires students to complete a certain amount of time in class unless the state school board of education approves excusing or forgiving those lost days.

Students in first- through 11th-grades must have 1,060 instructional hours, which does not include study halls or lunchtime, said Delaware Department of Education spokesman Ron Gough. Students in grade 12 are required to have 1,032 hours of instruction while kindergarteners must have 440 hours, Gough said.

Some schools, such as those in the Caesar Rodney district, work on a 180-day calendar instead of using instructional hours, Gough added.

“Each year, when schools or school districts build their school calendars, they will add extra days or hours into their calendars to act as a cushion in case a school must close during the year due to a manmade or natural event, such as a broken water main, blizzard, etc.,” Gough said.

But when enough days are lost that schools lose that cushion, districts may ask those days be “forgiven” instead of extending the year further to meet the minimum legal requirements for instructional time.

According to the Caesar Rodney, Lake Forest and Polytech school district websites, none of those districts have scheduled makeup times past their approved last day of school. If the state school board does not forgive the snow days, those district school boards will have to vote to extend the school year.

Schools in the Capital School District are another matter, in that the district already has six built-in “weather contingency” days in its calendar. According to the schedule, Wednesday, June 9, is the last day of school in the district, but Friday, June 11, and the entire following week have been set aside as extra class days.

Thursday, June 10, has been designated a professional development day.

“This gives parents advance notice that if we miss any days, this is where we will make them up,” said district Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mike Thomas. This practice also allows students to have a full spring break, which is important because many families already have trips planned for that week, beginning Friday, April 2.

Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, superintendent of the Caesar Rodney School District, said while making up the lost days is important, he’s also worried about losing instructional time, time students need to prepare for Delaware Student Testing Program exams.

“The question is, how do you adjust the entire schedule, not just add snow days?” Fitzgerald said. According to the CR calendar, DSTP testing begins the week of March 8 and continues through March 25.

With that in mind, “A day in February or March is worth a lot more than a day in June,” he said.

“Our concern is, how do we get our students prepared to succeed on this test, and get them refocused on learning,” Fitzgerald said.

“Hopefully,” he added, “they’ll adjust the test schedule and we can plan that way.”

Gough said if district superintendents and charter school administrators want to ask the lost days be forgiven, they would make their requests in writing to Secretary of Education Dr. Lillian Lowery, who then could make a recommendation to the state board of education.

Because of the possibility of more school closings due to bad weather, that probably will not happen until the board’s March meeting, he said.

“February is often the month were the weather is most adverse, and it would be more efficient to make any requests all at once rather than month-in and month-out,” Gough said.

Email Jeff Brown at jeff.brown@doverpost.com.