By CharLy Markwart
PRINCETON — It's no secret that Mother Nature has wreaked some extra havoc on many aspects of life in Four Seasons Country this winter, and this week she forced local school officials to adjust the remaining calendar of the 2009-10 school year.
As a result of the 12 closures the district had experienced as of Thursday due to inclement weather, along with two early dismissals and six two-hour delays, officials announced Monday that the four Out of School Environment (OSE) days scheduled for March 5 and 19 and May 10 and 28 have been changed to regular instructional days. Each year, according to Mercer Schools Public Information Specialist Kellan Sarles, several OSE days are placed on the county's school calendar to be used for instructional time in case of school time lost to bad weather.
“They were built in for this reason,” she said. “Typically, we build in four or five after the first of March, and since I have been here, we have used them routinely. I don't remember a time when we have actually been able to have those days as days off of school.”
Still, this year's total of 12 snow days so far is excessive, by any means. And, since the school year is scheduled to end on June 7, with teachers working until June 9, the last day allowed on the pay period under current state legislation, expanding the calendar to include more instructional days in June is not an option. Sarles says that means the OSE days are the only way to compensate for lost time in the classroom.
“We can't add days on, because under the legislation we're under now, the pay period they allow for teachers ends on June 9, so if teachers stayed on after that, we couldn't pay them,” she said. “These four days are the only real adjustment we can make, and the rest is just lost instructional time.”
In addition to the OSE days, the Mercer Schools calendar also includes three Instructional Support (IS) days scheduled for Feb. 15, April 2 and June 8. Under West Virginia code, however, those days must be used primarily for teacher preparation, professional activities and meeting time for educators, and cannot be converted to regular school time.
“A small portion, about two hours, of those days can be used for student instructional purposes, which is usually for special choir rehearsals or things of that nature,” said Sarles. “But students won't be in school those days; we can't use them to make up for lost time.”
That leaves county educators with the only option being to make the most of the time they do have in the classroom with their students, Sarles said.
“The state government wants students to be in the classroom for 180 days, ideally, but even if we hadn't missed any days for inclement weather, we would have only had 175,” she said. “Now, we're already down to 163. We just try to compensate by time on task, and adjusting any extra-curricular activities. We're trying to make sure the time the students do have is well-spent and focused.”
With several inclement weather closures already in the books earlier this school year, the Mercer County Board of Education enforced that dedication to quality instructional time, a point of emphasis this year with the West Virginia Board of Education, by voting to cancel first semester exams to allow for more learning time for students.
“That decision was primarily about the snow days we had already had, but it was two-fold, because we did have students who missed quite a bit of school because of the flu and that sort of thing that was going around,” said Sarles. “Mostly based on the lost instructional time due to inclement weather, though, I think the Board felt it was better for students to spend time with instruction rather than reviewing for and taking exams.”
Now, with the only means of instructional time compensation used up, school officials are keeping an eye on the forecast with their fingers crossed in hopes that Mother Nature is ready for a hard-earned break.
“This many snow days already is very out of the ordinary, but I do remember back in 1978 when we had 21 days off due to weather, so we're hoping not to have that this year,” said Sarles.
Other than the conversion of OSE days to regular, in-class school days, the school calendar will remain as originally scheduled. Spring Break will occur April 5-9, and school will conclude on June 7. County graduation ceremonies will take place on June 4 and 5.
— Contact CharLy Markwart at cmarkwart@ptonline.net.
