NEWS

Delaware schools may need some snow makeup time

Matthew Albright
The News Journal

Some students might see half-days turned into full days or in-service days turned into regular class days to make up time missed for snow-related closures, while other schools planned enough extra time to remain on schedule.

It was another long winter this year, with schools missing six to nine days of class, depending on the district. State law requires 1,060 hours of instructional time for students, with only 1,032 hours for seniors. Most districts build more time than that into their schedules as a "cushion" in case of bad weather or other closures, but harsh winters can sometimes eat up that time.

The missed class time is a mix of full days missed and delayed openings or early dismissals. Brandywine School District, for example, missed four full days, delayed opening twice and dismissed early twice.

Brandywine built enough time into its schedule that it will not have to make up any days, spokeswoman Alexis Andrianopoulos said. Indian River also had enough time built in to avoid make-up days.

Other districts are making some relatively small changes.

Red Clay's elementary schools will have full days on May 14 and 15, while its middle and high schools will have full days on June 1 and 2. Those days were originally planned to be half-days.

Smyrna School District turned May 1, originally scheduled as a teacher in-service day, into a regular class day.

Some districts have not yet finalized their makeup plans.

One issue that was worrying some schools was how snow would affect plans for seniors. If seniors had to make up extra time, it might have disrupted plans for graduation and other events.

State officials approved districts' request to "forgive" two snow days, when Gov. Jack Markell called off work for all but essential state employees, for seniors only.

The state also "forgave" those two days for teachers.

Though there were plenty of snow days this year, things weren't as rough as last year when class got canceled a whopping 10 times in New Castle County schools.

Had school districts been required to make up all that time, then they would have been forced to take drastic steps like removing days from spring break vacations or adding days to the end of the school year. So districts petitioned the state to "forgive" four or five days.

Though state officials eventually approved that request, they made clear that they were not pleased to do so and expected states to plan better in the future.

"It is disappointing to be sitting here again having the same conversation. This is the third time we have had this conversation under my tenure," Secretary of Education Mark Murphy said last week in approving the districts' requests for seniors. "I do recognize that many of our districts did take creative and proactive tests to accommodate students and their educators."

Many districts made changes to this year's calendar because of the high number of cancellations, adding a bigger cushion.

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright