Students in Tazewell County will be spending an extra 35 minutes in the classroom beginning Monday as a way to help make up for hours of lost instructional time.
A winter for the record books forced officials to cancel school 21 times this season.
Virginia law requires students to have 990 clock hours of instruction each year, but Tazewell County has had only 594 hours so far. As a result, school officials had to do something to recover the lost instructional hours.
If all of the snow days to date were added to the end of the school year, school would continue until June 25, according to Christine Kinser, assistant superintendent for administration and instruction. That in return would have impacted everything from summer school and vacations to those teachers who pursue continuing education or advanced certification during the summer break. In all reality, keeping kids in the classroom well into late June would have created a lot of problems for students, parents and teachers alike.
As a result, the board decided to add 35 minutes to each day starting March 15. The last day of school will be June 10, and graduation day for the high schools will be June 11.
Board chairman Mike Dennis said many parents had asked him not to extend the school year into the summer.
While we realize a longer school day could be a little difficult for some students, including the youngest of kids, we believe the plan implemented by the school system is a workable solution to the lost instructional hours.
This was not a normal winter for our region — not by any stretch of the imagination.
We understand something had to be done to recover the dozens of instructional hours lost thanks to the record-breaking snowfall. And we also realize that winter isn’t over — not yet.
Another snow storm, and another lost day of school, is still a possibility — even after the first day of spring arrives on March 20.
In the end, the extended school day is the best and most practical solution the school system could pursue. Extending the school year past June 10 wouldn’t have been in the best of interest of students, parents and teachers alike.
Editorials
March 11, 2010
Longer school day: Tazewell plan is the best solution
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