Schools search for make-up days

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Brian Korthals/Daily Globe Worthington Middle School students walk to the buses following class Thursday afternoon in Worthington. Martin Luther King Day, which was scheduled for an in-service day, will now be a regular school day for District 518 students.

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WORTHINGTON — Numerous schools in southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa had to call off classes on Monday and Tuesday due to heavy snowfall and impassable roads, and now they are left to find openings in the calendar for make-up days.

In Worthington’s District 518, the move to a flexible learning year calendar in the fall of 2010 is actually making it easier to create replacement school days for students.

David Skog, director of management services for the school district, said the goal is to keep make-up days within the same quarter when possible. Their first change to the calendar will be on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, which was initially slated as a teacher in-service day and a holiday for students. Teachers and students are now to report to class that day.

While the change is short notice for students and families, Skog said he has heard few complaints about the sudden change.

“I think the school will work with people who had previous engagements,” he said.

As for the second make-up day, Skog said President’s Day may be an option as a last resort. At this time, it is at issue with some of the teacher’s unions.

“There were actually two days in the second quarter — one in November and one in December — if we’d needed them,” he said. “We have two more in April and one in May if we continue to have weather issues.

“This is the first year we’ve had this many days built in for quite a while,” Skog said. In the past, the district has typically added days on to the end of the school year to make up for lost days due to winter weather.

At Sibley-Ocheyedan School District, superintendent secretary Angie Klaassen said three school dates have already been added to the end of their school year to make up for lost student-contact days this winter. The district had no snow dates built in.

“Our last day of school was supposed to be May 18, and it’s been extended to May 24,” Klaassen said.

Any additional snow days this winter will simply extend the school year further. Last year, the S-O school district added six days onto the end of the school calendar because of snow days.

The Luverne School District has had three snow days already this school year, using up all of its built-in snow days. At this point, the district has not discussed adding more school days, and if the weather cooperates, maybe it won’t need to.

Skog likely summarized the hope of districts across the region by saying, “I hope it stays warm and doesn’t snow and doesn’t blow.”

With the latest storm to hit the region, Skog said the biggest issue was that roads weren’t getting plowed early enough to make the roads passable for school buses.

“We would have much rather gone to school both (Monday and Tuesday), but the snow never quit,” he added.

At Southwest Star Concept, which has school buildings in both Heron Lake and Okabena, students may be spending more time in the classroom in March if the weather continues to impact school days.

Dean of Students Cindy Owen said the district had two built-in snow days, but has already cancelled class three times this school year. She isn’t sure what it will do about the make-up day at this point, but the winter is far from over.

“Last year we did something different,” she said. “We had so many (snow days) that we added on an additional half-hour during the month of March. Rather than tack (the days) onto the end of the school year, we wanted to do it when it would be more productive time for students.”

With state testing in April and the winter sports season wrapping up in mid- to late-March, Owen said it worked well to keep students in class an extra half-hour each day.

“It overlapped just a little bit with the varsity (sports) — they just started practice as soon as we got done with school,” she said.

Owen said school make-up dates will be discussed at the district’s board meeting on Tuesday, so it’s too early to know if the extended school day schedule will be implemented this school year.

“Who knows? Things could turn around quickly and this could be the end of (the snow), but I kind of doubt it,” she said.

It isn’t just snow that could lead to school cancellations. With many ditches now filled throughout the region, white-out conditions and poor visibility can come about any time the wind picks up.

“Any kind of blowing or drifting across the roads is going to create problems,” Owen said. “On Monday we did have buses out and the drivers called in and said it was really hard to see.”

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