As Clark County continues to thaw out from multiple winter weather storms to kick off the year, school districts around Clark County are scrambling to make up for lost time.
According to the Washington State Board of Education, students must have 180 days of school and an average of 1,027 instructional hours.
Some districts plan on asking the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction for a waiver to excuse some makeup days, although the minimum requirement of instructional hours has to be met. To make up for the cancelled hours, districts are changing non-student days into attendance days and extending the school day.
Officials with Vancouver Public Schools and Evergreen Public Schools announced their plans last week. Here is the status of other smaller school districts.
Camas
The Camas School District will add instructional time back into school days by converting early release and late start times and is planning on requesting a waiver from OSPI.
The district, which canceled nine days of school this school year due to winter weather, changed Monday from a non-attendance day into a regular student attendance day. Feb. 17 was also changed to a regular attendance day. Early-release dates for elementary school students on Wednesday, Feb. 15, March 1 and March 15 were changed into full days. Late start days on Feb. 8 and 9 and March 1 and 2 are now also full days of school.
“It’s unfortunate to lose the valuable professional collaboration time that early releases and late starts provide, but given the impact of lost instructional time and the challenges of scheduling additional days later in the summer, we feel the plan serves students, families, and staff well,” Superintendent Jeff Snell wrote in an email.
The last day of school, June 26, is also a full day of attendance. Snell said he didn’t want to move graduation dates because families plan months in advance to come out for graduation, and some students have to report to work, school or the service right after graduation and moving that date back could cause issues for them.
Snell also wrote the district plans on applying for a waiver but will wait until it warms up, just to be sure.
“Our hope is that we don’t have any more days affected by inclement weather and need to revisit plans, but this winter has continued to remind us that there are some things beyond our control,” Snell wrote.
Washougal
The Washougal School District, which canceled 10 days of school, will also wait out the weather a little longer before applying for a waiver from OSPI.
In the meantime, Friday, June 21 and 22 have all been changed to regular attendance days, while Feb. 9 and 10 will be early-release days for Washougal High School to support end of semester grading and planning. The end of the first semester will be Feb. 10.
Starting Feb. 6, 18 minutes will be added to the end of each school day. Similar to Camas, the graduation dates for Washougal High School and Excelsior High School will not change.
“Working with our employee association groups, we have found a solution that maintains the instructional program for students and hopefully also meets the needs of families at the end of the school year,” Superintendent Mike Stromme said in a release from the district.
Ridgefield
Seven days of school were canceled for students in the Ridgefield School District, and district officials have plans to make up three of them.
The school board approved a plan to turn Feb. 17, June 16 and 19 into instructional days, which will help the district reach the minimum requirement for instructional hours, according to Chris Griffith, assistant superintendent.
District officials will ask OSPI for a waiver to make up the remaining four days. Barring any additional cancellations, the last day of school will be June 19.
La Center
The La Center School District didn’t have any school days built into the schedule, and canceled seven days. Superintendent Dave Holmes said district officials looked to add in make up days where they could and then added days onto the end of the school year.
The plan in La Center is to move the end of the first semester to Feb. 3.
A teacher work day on Jan. 27 was changed to a regular attendance day, and the teacher professional development day on April 21 is now a regular student attendance day.
The last day of school, originally scheduled for June 15, is now June 22. Holmes said the district’s school board could apply for a waiver to make up one more day, which would move the last day up to June 21, but board members haven’t decided about applying for it yet.
Woodland
Woodland Public Schools planned for four snow days in the schedule, and ended up canceling a record nine days, according to Eric Jacobsen, spokesman for the district.
“The high school staff is working to come up with opportunities for the senior class to make up their snow days between now and graduation so we don’t have to push back the graduation date,” he said.
While searching for additional time for seniors, the district listed Feb. 17, May 1 and 26 as snow makeup days in an updated calendar posted on Jan. 18.
The remaining two days will be added to the end of the school year on June 16 and 19.
Hockinson
Over in the Hockinson School District, Jan. 27 was changed to a regular attendance day, along with Feb. 17 and June 16.
Starting Jan. 30, the district will add 20 minutes to the end of every school day until the state-required number of instructional minutes is met.
According to the makeup plan sent out by the district, it is anticipated the district will return to the regular schedule before the end of May, although if there are more cancellations, the district could continue that schedule into June.
District officials plan on letting parents know sometime in March when the school day will return to its regular schedule.
