Updated: Stafford considers extending school day to make up snow days

STAFFORD COUNTY — Another winter storm is potentially on its way to cover the region in snow and ice mid-week, and schools in the area are looking to recoup lost days by using holidays and exam days.

“This year has set a precedent,” Thomas Nichols, chief secondary officer for Stafford County Public Schools (SCPS), told Potomac Local. “We usually don’t miss this many days before the end of the semester.”

For the 2018-19 school year, SCPS has already used up eight days for inclement weather closings — six full days and six two-hour delays. They only have ten snow days built into the calendar, which they calculate by breaking the days into hours.

“Historically, we use the majority of our snow days in January, February and March,” said Nichols. As a result, SCPS superintendent Dr. Scott Kizner is “trying to be proactive.”

Nichols said that Kizner made the call to turn three early dismissal exam days in January into full instructional days. Additionally, although this past President’s Day was supposed to be a day off, it was used as a full instructional day.

Through these measures, SCPS has recouped one and a quarter days, leaving them with three and a quarter remaining days before they fall under state requirements.

But as the potential for more lost days due to inclement weather looms, SCPS is looking into the option of turning Memorial Day into an instructional day, as well as using early dismissal exam days in June as full days.

Another option Kizner is considering is adding time to current school days. “We might add five minutes to a typical day to make up for the losses,” Nichols explained.

If all else fails and a school has followed every measure to make up for weather losses, Nichols said the state has a waiver that schools can fill out that will turn two lost days into one, so the pressure to recoup days is lessened.

The Commonwealth of Virginia requires schools to have a minimum of 990 instructional hours, spread out over a minimum of 180 school days each year. Additional hours are typically built in to the calendar to make up for weather closings.

Manassas City Public Schools (MCPS) has lost six days of instruction, but “does not anticipate a need to add days to the school calendar,” Dave Lyon, director of assessment and accountability for MCPS, said. “Typically, there are enough total instructional hours in the school year to meet the state’s requirement of 990 hours without having to add school days to the calendar.”

“Manassas Park City Schools has closed only three days this school year as the result of inclement weather,” Deanne Perez, executive administrative assistant to the superintendent, told Potomac Local. Perez added that sufficient hours are included to allow for weather closures, and they do not foresee the need to discuss extending the school year at this point.

As of February 12, Prince William County Schools (PWCS) has had seven closings, six two-hour delayed openings, and one two-hour early release. They are left with just under ten days’ worth of hours remaining (9.75 days) before they would fall under the state minimum requirement. PWCS has “built in the equivalent of approximately 19 days’ worth of hours above the 990-hour requirement,” according to its website.

Potomac Local has issued a correction: The Stafford County School division will not consider Memorial Day as an instructional snow make-up day. Stafford County Schools spokeswoman Sherrie Johnson contacted Potomac Local on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019, to dispute our reporting.

Photo: Stafford County Public Schools Facebook page