Local school districts have been struggling with how to make up the school days missed since December.
Students in the Union Local School District will make up missed school days on Friday, March 12; Monday, March 29; Monday, April 5 and Tuesday- Thursday, June 1-3. The remaining two days will be made up through a 30 minute extension of the school day. Students will begin the day 15 minutes earlier and end the day 15 minutes later.
It will take 10 days of extended school days to make up one elementary school day and 11 days to make up on middle or high school day.
Superintendent Kirk Glasgow said barring any more cancellations, the additional 30 minutes will occur for 20 school days at the elementary school and 22 days at the middle and high schools. The process began Monday, March 1.
School was canceled again in the district on Thursday, Feb. 25 and Friday, Feb. 26.
Glasgow thanked parents for their "patience, understanding and cooperation."
A parent/teacher conference missed on Feb. 11 was rescheduled for the afternoon and evening of March 11, beginning with a two-hour early dismissal. Conferences for middle school and high school students will be held from 12:30- 6 p.m. Elementary school conferences will be from 1:30-7:30 p.m. Parents should contact the school offices to set up appointments.
Also, the high school will be operating on a two-hour delay March 15-19 for all students who are not taking the Ohio Graduation Test. All sophomores, and any junior or senior who has not passed the OGT, must take the test and be in attendance during testing week. Busses will run their regular schedule for students who are testing and students who do not have their own transportation. Students who are reporting to school on the two-hour delay must provide their own transportation. The two-hour delay affects the high school only. The elementary and middle schools will operate on their regular schedule.
At a Feb. 18 board meeting, Barnesville Exempted Village School Board members voted for the option of extending the school day by 60 minutes (30 for teachers).
Lucas began discussions with the Barnesville Education Association president Feb. 19. On Monday, March 1, Lucas said BEA members were voting this week. A special meeting of the board of education was to be held this morning, March 3 at 7 a.m. at the district office to discuss the issue. The board's regularly scheduled March meeting has been moved to Wednesday, March 17, due to a conflict in schedule with the school spelling bee.
The board selected an alternate option in case an agreement is not made with the union. The alternative option would extend the student day by 30 minutes and adjust the staff schedule, without increasing total staff time. With that option, teachers would have to work an additional four or five days at the end of the year, according to their contracts which say they must work seven and a half hours for 184 days.
Extending the student school day by 60 minutes would require students to arrive 10 minutes earlier and be released 50 minutes later than usual. The new schedule will begin this month.
School was canceled for Barnesville students on Friday, Feb. 26.
In both districts, the board also approved the use of an alternative bus route to help decrease school cancellations. Students on main roads would be picked up and those on impassable roads would need to meet the bus at another stop.
School districts have been struggling this year and are looking ahead to the next school year, when the state will decrease calamity days to three. Every year after, calamity days will decrease in number by one, eventually resulting in zero calamity days allowed by the 2013-2014 school year.
Help may be on the horizon. House Bill 407, introduced by Reps. James J. Zehringer (R-77) and Mark D. Okey (D-61), would allow school districts the option of making up a maximum of five calamity days through lessons posted online.
H.B. 407 also includes language that addresses students who do not have Internet access at home. Those students would be able to complete assignments when they return to school. Those using the Internet at home would have two weeks from the date the assignment is posted, to complete it.
Lucas said if the bill is passed, the district may utilize the option, providing teachers are trained properly.
"If we were to use online assignments, we would have to do it right," he said. "I think it would be challenging for teachers to teach all ability levels without teacher/student interaction."
Lucas pointed out that students are already kept abreast of assignments through the district's calling system.
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