In order to resolve the issue of seven canceled school days, five late starts, and numerous early outs, the Pleasant Valley School Board convened on February 11 to decide on how to make up this time taken by the polar vortex.
There were multiple aspects to consider when rescheduling missed school time. A prominent concern for many upperclassmen was preparation for standardized AP tests that have fixated dates. In this case, extending school into the summer does not help, as summer learning time is after the test dates. Senior Emily Preston explained the impact of cancellations on AP students.
“With AP tests in May, it puts extra pressure on both students and teachers since there’s less time to cover the same amount of material. Having the school start date pushed back a few years ago in addition to the number of school days we have missed, it will be far more difficult to prepare for the AP tests.”
State requirements and summer schedules are other aspects to consider when rescheduling missed school days. The district has to ensure they meet the required amount of time mandated by the state, or students may not be eligible to receive credits. Summer schedules are also a significant issue – between drivers ed, school organized trips, and vacations, extending too far into summer becomes nearly impossible.
With all of this in mind, the school board considered several rescheduling possibilities. As Nikhil Wagle, school board president said: “We’ve had an unprecedented amount of snow days, so all options were on the table.” With options ranging from holidays, Saturdays, breaks, summertime, and lengthened school days, and with the aforementioned issues in mind, the school board reached a decision.
Each missed school day has a clear makeup time scheduled. For missed school days November 26, January 23, and January 25, school will extend into June 5, 6 and 7.
For missing January 29, the PV school district had a extended early out schedule on February 15, which was previously scheduled for no school.
Getting into more creative solutions, the snow day of January 30 will be made up by eliminating all early out days from March until May.
For the snow days of January 31 and February 7, there will be extended days on March 4-7, 18-21, 25-28, as well as no early dismissal on the last day of school.
This winter weather was not typical. “So much time has been lost due to late starts and early outs, and so many school days have been canceled, ” Meg Byrne said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.” Byrne is in her 24th year of directing choir at PV, further proving how abnormal this weather has been.
With the snow day conflict finally resolved, PV is hoping for clear skies the rest of this school year – because if any more days are canceled, it’s back to the drawing board.
