Two members of the state Senate
from Southern West Virginia say they are
getting mixed signals from the state Board of Education on how to deal with
high numbers of snow days for school children in their district.
Senators Mike Hall
(R-Wyoming) and Jeff Mullins (R-Raleigh) say they were told in an email
from the state Board of Education counties who had missed a large number of
days would be able to make those up with the banked time they have already
accrued by extra time added to the instructional days children were present in
the classroom.
“In this e-mail it basically states
to assist counties, the West Virginia
There is confusion now however
since an attorney representing the state Board of Education disagrees. He says
the law is clear, a missed day is a missed day, and making it up by going extra
hours to school isn’t going to satisfy the requirements of a 180 calendar.
Hall and Mullins worried if forced
to follow those guideline without the waiver, school children in their district
would be in school until last week of June.
“We’ve got camps kids go to during
the first weeks of June,” he said. “Church camps and football, basketball, team
camps start in June. They’re going to have to miss school or cancel team
camps.”
Mullins said the bigger issue would
be the fact of summer school which starts not long after the last day of school
and some who depend on summer school for additional instructions may be short
changed.
Hall and Mullins want the waiver to allow counties to use their
banked days to make up the time missed for snow in a shorter span. They
are waiting on a judgement as to whether it will be allowed.
