With warmer temperatures in our forecast and the month of March upon us, I am hoping against hope that Spring is just around the corner. However, all over the state of Ohio parents, educators and law-makers alike are just really beginning to understand the true force of this past (and still present) Winter. Due to outrageous amounts of snow, (30.1 inches in Columbus in just February alone, the snowiest Winter in 200 years) most school districts have not only used all of their Calamity Days, they have surpassed them.
Wait. Their what? Calamity Days. That's Ohio's special snowflake (pun intended) way of saying Snow Days. These are five days in which school districts do not have to "make up" the time if they are missed for whatever disaster befalls the district. Any days missed beyond those five need to be made up. The problem, however, is that it is not specifically stated as to how each individual school district can or, rather, cannot make up the time. Many schools are simply extending their calendar, pushing the last days of school into June. Others, however, are creating an uproar with their plans.
Here's what's going on in
East Muskingum School District (though
plans changed due to even more snow): instead of simply extending the school year (though there's that,
too), students will be attending school on a Saturday and every day this week the school hour was extended by an hour. A friend of mine lamented the fact that her children weren't getting home from school until quarter to five. My family eats supper at that time. But okay, extend the school day an hour. I can deal with an overtired child at bedtime. I really can. Been there, done that. Will probably do it for a reason unrelated to Calamity Days in the near future.
School on Saturdays? Unacceptable.
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