Cabell County Superintendent
William Smith said the county has taken advantage of the earlier start date
since the West Virginia Department of Education relaxed the calendar rules back
in 2011.
“It’s so we can complete the first
semester prior to the Christmas break, so that students don’t have to come back
and prepare for finals when they’ve been out of school for three weeks,”
explained Smith.
So far there’s not enough data to
officially determine if the early start/early out semester is helping kids
grade-wise but Smith said its something his staff is keeping an eye on.
“We haven’t been doing it long
enough to know if there’s a correlation between the two. I doubt there is.
Research doesn’t really bare that out except our grades are better in the high
schools because the finals are closer to the time the students are in
instruction,” according to Smith.
A majority of the state’s 55
counties will be starting back to class on August 15 or August 22, both
Thursdays. In fact, the 22nd is the latest start date for any county.
The mountain counties have taken
full advantage of the early start to make sure they get in 180 days of
instruction, as required, by the state. In places where snow days can add up
quickly the extra time on the calendar gives school systems several weeks of
banked time in case of inclement weather.
Despite some problems with a new
air conditioning system at Salt Rock Elementary all schools are a go for
Thursday. Smith said they’re preparing for at least the same amount of students
who attended last school year.
“We hit a peak of about 13-thousand
last year. But Our Pre-K program is exploding right now, so we don’t know how
many more we’ll have come in,” said Smith.
Even though Cabell County
