As school cancellations pile up with the ice and snow, the state Board of Education will consider a resolution next week giving school districts the flexibility not to make up as many as four of the missed days.
And depending on how many more school days are canceled, that resolution could be tweaked to let districts forgo even more days.
With a major ice storm bearing down a mere two weeks after frigid gridlock paralyzed much of Georgia, most school districts in metro Atlanta will have lost at least five days through Wednesday, sucking away instructional time in a state whose academic results are often less than stellar.
And Thursday is looking like another mass cancellation, as state and power company officials are sending out stern warnings that the storm could knock out power for days.
State law requires districts to have at least 180 days of school, but many have already used waivers to chop that calendar down to save money. The SnowJam of two weeks ago and its icy twin are now eating up more of the precious time schools need with students.
That’s less time to prepare for the state’s standardized test, the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. Less time to get middle-schoolers ready for high school. And less time in class as students get ready for Advanced Placement exams and the SAT.
“It is unfortunate that our students have missed so many valuable instructional days this year due to weather issues and to already shortened school calendars,” Georgia Superintendent John Barge said. “With that said, we have to provide districts with the flexibility they need to make the best determination at the local level.”
The state board is likely to approve the resolution during its monthly meeting on Feb. 20. Districts can make up some of the lost days if they choose to, but the resolution would give them the flexibility of not adding those days back to the school calendar.
Precisely how many days districts have lost so far varies.
For instance, like many in metro Atlanta, students in Cobb missed a day in early January because of extreme cold, plus three days at the end of January because of snow. Besides the days lost to weather this week, the district had previously planned three teacher furlough days for later this week and next. Students also will be out on Monday for President’s Day.
“We’re home for eight straight days,” said Sarah Lyons, whose daughter attends Nickajack Elementary in Smyrna and whose pre-school-aged son gets speech therapy there. “You just can’t make that work up at home.”
Meanwhile, the Gwinnett district has had fewer weather-related cancellations and has already scheduled makeup days for those it did have, including a day clawed back from summer break, said district spokeswoman Sloan Roach. She said it is unclear how Gwinnett will handle the missed days this week.
In DeKalb, Superintendent Michael Thurmond is weighing two options to make up the lost time: adding days to the calendar, including opening school during Monday’s holiday, or adding minutes to the length of each remaining school day this semester.
As the massive storm looms, some students aren’t complaining about having to stay home from school with their cellphones, televisions and gaming systems. Tykes are getting another chance to play in the snow and ice.
But for many, these fun days off will have a future bite. From adding time to the school day, having class on previously scheduled off days and even extending the school year, districts are considering a variety of ways to make up the lost instructional time.
Fulton Superintendent Robert Avossa said the district won’t shorten spring break, but it is considering lengthening the school day or extending the school year. Cherokee is considering lengthening the school day.
With bitter memories from two weeks ago of SnowJam trapping students on buses and forcing thousands to spend the night at their school, district officials didn’t fret about shutting down for this latest arctic threat.
“The calendar is not a factor in our decision-making process to close schools for inclement weather,” Cherokee Superintendent Frank Petruzielo said. “We only consider the safety of our students and staff.”
While many parents said they are happy districts canceled school ahead of the ice storm, they are also worried about lost instructional time.
“As a parent of three elementary school-aged children, I am concerned about how the snow days will affect my kids’ learning,” said Missy Daggett of Fulton County, who is a former elementary school teacher.
Daggett said her son, a second-grader, is participating in a multiplication contest.
“He has passed a level every single day he’s taken a test, except for the one he took yesterday,” she said. “I know he was worried about the upcoming snow day because it was the first thing he mentioned when he told me he didn’t pass.”
Lost instructional time isn’t just a problem for the state’s K-12 education system.
Like public school systems, some higher education institutions were closed for as many as five days because of the twin weather events.
As the weather worsened on Tuesday, many colleges, including Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, had not yet decided how to address the lost class hours.
Georgia Gwinnett College scheduled May 1 and May 2 as make-up days for this week’s closings. The make-up schedule will push the first day of spring semester exams back a day while preserving spring break for students, school officials said.
Other institutions had not mentioned adding instruction days to the calendar. Individual instructors on many campuses were making adjustments to their class schedules to account for the missed time, and administrators were encouraging faculty to utilize online learning resources during the snow days when they could.
Like most colleges, Emory University doesn’t have a campuswide policy to deal with lost instruction time. Deans work with faculty to determine how to make up that time.
The announcement of another snow day this week spawned a #ThankGary trending topic on Twitter as Emory students expressed their appreciation to Vice President Gary Hauk, who is in charge of school closing notifications.
At least two Emory students tweeted about the lost days. One tweeted that her creative writing class had only met three times this semester.
Tweeted another: “#ThanksGary but I wish I could get a refund for all the classes I’m missing.”
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