Bad weather means longer school year
By Nick Claussen
Athens NEWS Associate Editor
March 27, 2008
Athens County school districts will add onto their calendars late this spring to make up for all of the days missed to snow and flooding, and at least one school will extend its hours to make up for missed days.
In the Athens City School District, the school year was originally supposed to end on Thursday, June 5, but the last day has been pushed back to Wednesday, June 11.
However, students in the district’s Chauncey, Morrison and West elementary schools will attend school until Thursday, June 12, in order to make up for days lost due to reasons such as high water and the power being out.
Chauncey Elementary missed so many days, though, that if it were to add all of the days onto the end of the year, the school year would stretch into the third week of June, confirmed school Supt. Carl Martin. Because of this, beginning on April 3, the school day at Chauncey will begin at 8:35 a.m. (instead of 9 a.m.) and end at 3:50 p.m. (instead of 3:30 p.m.) to make up the other days the school had to be closed.
The extra time is only being added onto the day at Chauncey Elementary School.
The Alexander Local School District was supposed to finish its year on Wednesday, May 28, but now the last day has been moved back to Friday, June 6, and graduation has been pushed back to June 7 (from May 25), according to Supt. Bob Bray. He explained that school districts have to miss more than 10 days because of snow or other reasons before days can be made up by adding time to the school day. The first five days that are missed do not have to be made up.
The teachers’ union would have to agree to add time onto the school day, and Bray said the district did not look seriously at this option.
The Alexander district has three people driving on the roads early on snowy days to see if school should be delayed or cancelled, Bray said. He is one of the people out driving.
“It’s really based upon if you feel the buses can stop safely,” Bray said. With so many children waiting near where the buses stop, school officials have to be sure that the buses won’t slide off the road near the children, he said. They also have to be sure that if the children wander into the road, the buses will be able to stop in time.
“We don’t have very many people who live along the highway. Most of our back roads are sometimes quite snow covered,” Bray said. Though the school district is also concerned about students driving to school, the main concern is the buses, he said.
Alexander has an electronic notification system that either calls the district parents and residents, or e-mails them to notify them when school is delayed or cancelled, Bray said. This notification goes out within minutes of when the decision is made to delay or cancel school, Bray said. Parents and residents sign up for the service.
THE NELSONVILLE-YORK City School District was supposed to end its year early on May 8 in order to give the construction crews more time to work on the building project at the high school/elementary school complex. A middle school is being added to the building.
The district has seven days to make up, though, so graduation has been moved back to Saturday, May 17, and the last day for students will be Monday, May 19. Students will get out two hours early on May 19, according to school Supt. Ted Bayat.
The construction phase this summer will focus on renovating the 1960s wing of the elementary school and building a new cafeteria and kitchen for the high school/ junior high, Bayat said.
“We’ve tried to give the contractors four months (during the summer) to make sure the cafeteria and kitchen are done and so they have a darn good start on that new middle school,” Bayat said.
The construction project is a three-phase project that won’t be completed until August or September 2010.
In the Federal Hocking Local School District, the last day of school was going to be Thursday, May 29, but it has been pushed back to Monday, June 9.
In the Trimble Local School District, the last day of school was going to be Friday, May 23, but district officials have not yet decided how they will make up the days lost to snow and high water, and they do not know when the last day of school will be.
Comments
Please log in to post a comment.
