MOUNT VERNON – When or if remaining calamity days run out for Knox County schools, the majority of districts plan to make up days, but a couple will switch to virtual learning.
Winter storms in Ohio have led to an uptick of snow days recently.
Mount Vernon City Schools and the Knox County Career Center do not have any calamity days left, whereas Centerburg and East Knox have the most left of the districts with five each.
Calamity days are when school is cancelled because of weather or other unforeseen circumstances. Not all calamity days are snow days, but most have been the result of snow days for Knox County districts this year.
Most districts plan to make up days by shortening spring break and adding days to the end of the year if they use more than the calamity days established. Mount Vernon and KCCC had fewer calamity days built into their schedules compared with the other Knox County districts, and they plan to switch to remote learning in lieu of future cancellations.
The number of calamity days school districts in Ohio have are based on hours in school, not days. Schools schedule “excess” hours above the minimum number of required hours to accommodate cancellations, and if a school falls below the minimum number of hours, it has to make them up.
Knox County Career Center and Mount Vernon City Schools both built in five calamity days to their calendar years and have used them all. But the reasons KCCC and Mount Vernon designated five days for calamity differ.
KCCC has a limited number of hours per day — 5.9 hours state reportable — because of the bussing time required to and from the county’s associate schools, KCCC supt. Kathrine Greenich wrote in an email to Knox Pages. KCCC has a longer school year than many of the county’s districts because of this shorter day.
School districts, joint vocational school districts and chartered non-public schools are required to be open for instruction for a minimum of 910 hours for students in full-day kindergarten through sixth grade, and 1,001 hours for students in grades 7 to 12.
Mount Vernon City Schools’ calendar reflects 1,078 hours at the secondary level and 1,038 hours at the elementary level, Mount Vernon supt. Bill Seder wrote. Officially, this means the middle school and high school can miss up to 77 hours of instruction or the equivalent of 12.5 days, and the elementary could miss up to 128 hours or the equivalent of 21 days.
“As a district we decided that we would continue to excuse up to five days of instruction even though we could have approved more,” Seder wrote. “We believe there are other options available to us to make up days beyond five that better aligns with our collective bargaining agreements and increased instructional opportunities for students.”
Both KCCC and Mount Vernon will switch to virtual learning for future calamity days. Calamity bags will be sent home for students at the younger levels in Mount Vernon, instead of electronic work, Seder wrote.
The remaining districts in Knox County built eight calamity days into the year and have not yet used them all.
Centerburg has five calamity days left.
Centerburg will make up days first by taking away days from spring break and next by adding days to the end of the school year, as needed, Centerburg supt. Mike Hebenthal wrote.
East Knox has three calamity days left.
East Knox will first begin making up days on Presidents’ Day, Feb. 21, if the district reaches its ninth calamity day by then, East Knox supt. Steve Larcomb wrote.
“Otherwise, we will make up days starting with day 9 during our scheduled Spring Break (March 25-29th) and then Good Friday (Apr. 15th) if still needed,” Larcomb wrote. “Any days needed beyond that will be added to the end of the school year.”
Fredericktown also has three calamity days left. Unlike other districts, Fredericktown has not yet determined how it will make up calamity days beyond eight.
“After the allotted days, the district will look at the number of excess hours remaining and a discussion between administration and the teacher association will take place to decide how the time is made up,” wrote administrative assistant Sonya Overholt, on behalf of interim supt. Jim Peterson.
Danville has two calamity days left.
“After eight days we will make them up on Spring Break, which is March 28-April 1,” Danville supt. Jason Snively wrote.
