By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The overwhelming story of 2014 has most certainly been the weather, and on a night when the latest round of wintery fury came slashing in, the Bucyrus Board of Education held a special meeting to look at what to do about the days that have already been missed. The school has already used 10 calamity days.
The first item for discussion was to bring the students in on February 14th. This day had been set as a waiver day/professional development day for the staff. Bringing the students in for this day will not count as a makeup day, but the staff is of the opinion that this will serve as an important day of instruction before the testing period of late March/April commences. The OAA’s are currently set to commence on April 21st, but superintendent Kevin Kimmel did add that the state is considering possibly moving back the testing days because of the weather troubles that have affected the whole state.
It was decided to go ahead with instruction on the 14th, with an eye toward holding the waiver day at a later date in the calendar, if indeed the weather cooperates and allows for that.
Bucyrus Superintendent Kevin Kimmel reported that it would be cost prohibitive to hold classes over President’s Day. That day is in the calendar as a holiday, so opening the doors would mean that the 52 support staff of the district would receive double time pay on top of their holiday pay and amount to more than $10,000 in expenses. They are considering the Monday after Easter, which is currently part of the scheduled spring break, as a way to alleviate the logjam at the end of the year. If everything stands as is, the makeup days would be the 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 of June. The district is working hard toward not needing to move graduation, and too many more makeup days might see them head down that road.
Much of the rest of the discussion was about implementing a “Calamity Alternative Make-Up Plan”, or, as it is less formally know, the Blizzard Bag Day. This system would see teachers post three sets of assignments in advance of a snow day, and then when such a calamity day is necessitated, the students would access these assignments online. These days could then be counted as non-calamity days.
This system could not be used as make-up days for calamity days that have already been enacted, only as a bulwark against future calamity days. They also must have hard copies of the assignments available for students who do not have access to the internet away from school. Students would have two weeks to turn in the assignments from the day they are received.
The District also needs about two weeks to implement this strategy, as Kimmel must send a letter to the State, and the teachers need to prepare the lessons. It was in light of these facts that Kimmel asked for urgency on this regard. The Board approved this course of action, and more details will be forthcoming as the particulars are finalized.
The Board also approved an overnight trip for the wrestling team to attend the District Wrestling Tournament at Bowling Green State University February 27 to March 1, 2014.