Maple Valley School district has already missed 10 days of instruction this school year due to inclement weather conditions. That means the district must find four days to add to the school calendar before students are let out for the summer.
Superintendent Michelle Falcon said she hopes to have a plan to take to the board of education for its Monday, Feb. 10 meeting.
“We do have a couple days we could pick up within the school year,” Falcon said. “We’ll likely have to add on to the end of the year.”
School districts are required by the State of Michigan to provide 172 days of instruction. They are allowed six “Acts of God” days each year. Anything over that number has to be made up.
Charlotte Public Schools has already planned its makeup days for the end of the school year, notifying parents this week that the last day of school will be a half-day on Tuesday, June 10. Charlotte Public Schools has missed nine days of instruction due to inclement weather.
“We didn’t want to mess with mid-winter break and we certainly didn’t want to mess with spring break,” said Dr. Nancy Hipskind, superintendent of Charlotte Public Schools. “When you start talking about spring break, so many people make advanced reservations and plans, we don’t want to disrupt those.”
Hipskind said she understands some families may make plans for the end of the school year as well, but is hopeful having made the decision this far in advance would allow people to make alternative plans without much trouble.
Bellevue Community Schools superintendent Scott Belt said the district is leaning toward adding four days to the end of its current calendar as well. The district has missed 10 days of instruction this winter. Belt said the district has not made any official decisions regarding the four extra missed days and is waiting to hear if there is any legislation upcoming that would allow some flexibility for school districts.
“There is word out there that there may be some legislation that would possibly give some relief in terms of the number of days,” Belt said. “So we may take that into consideration. As of right now it looks like we’re in a position to have to make up four days.”
Local superintendents are also mindful that February, historically, has been a month where weather plays a factor in cancelling school. Any additional days missed would have to be made up as well.
“We will have to see what winter continues to bring us,” Hipskind said. “Please know that the safety of our children will always be our first consideration.”
The Charlotte superintendent said the district likely would have closed on Wednesday had the snow fallen earlier in the morning.
“We were out checking the roads at 4:30 and 5 (a.m.) and there was only an inch of snow,” Hipskind said.
Much of Wednesday’s heavy snowfall fell between 6 and 9 a.m.
