State Representatives Casey Kozlowski (R-Pierpont) and John Carey (R-Wellston) announced that House Bill 36, which increases the number of school calamity days in Ohio, passed from the House Education Committee by a unanimous vote of 23-0.

House Bill 36 restores the number of excusable calamity days to five, which would take effect immediately and allow two additional calamity days for the remainder of the 2010-2011 school year. It will also allow schools the flexibility to make up calamity days by lengthening the school day in 30-minute increments.

“The state of Ohio is notorious for having unpredictable and hazardous winter weather, which is why we need to give local districts the freedom and flexibility to decide for themselves whether or not to cancel classes for safety reasons,” said Kozlowski, who previously served as president of the Pymatuning Valley Board of Education and currently serves on the Education Committee. “Up in my hometown and the 99th District, we certainly do not get the same amount of snow as Columbus or other corners of the state, and this bill provides much-needed sensitivity to each school district’s needs and concerns.”

In the past, the first five calamity days of each school year were excused and school districts made up calamity days beyond the fifth. However, as a result of an amendment to House Bill 1 during the 128th General Assembly, only three calamity days are now excused beginning in the 2010-2011 school year, and many districts have already used all available calamity days because of recent snow storms.

“I’m very pleased that so many of my House colleagues voted in support of this legislation in committee, because this is an issue of public safety for our state’s children, educators and school personnel,” said Rep. Carey. “It is of the utmost importance that we empower our local school districts and give them the tools to make their own decisions about the dangers of driving in snowy or icy conditions.”

With House Bill 36 receiving strong bipartisan support in the Education Committee, the legislation will now move to the House floor for a vote.

3 comments:

Marc Schare said...

The issue isn't safety. No school district is going to open or not open based on whether they have calamity days left. The legislature should give school superintendents a bit more credit than that.

The issue is whether it is good public policy to further reduce the number of days that school is in session. As it is, Ohio (and the United States) has one of the shortest school years in the world. State mandated days for parent conferences and record keeping further reduces the number of days kids are in school.

The issue here is - how many of the 5 calamity days should be made up. Under HB1, all but 3 calamity days should be made up. Under this bill, all but 5 calamity days should be made up. In most years, this means kids are in school 2 days less, and needlessly so.

Ohioans should realize that we are already paying for those days, so this is pouring money we don't have down the drain.

There are many ways to improve the bill.

You can mandate that teachers use snow days for professional development. The safety issue for most snow days is with kids, not with adults. Why not have teachers take advantage of the time for ongoing professional development or for much needed time to collaborate with their colleagues.

You can mandate that districts have online material ready to go for the kids and take advantage of online learning possibilities.

Once again, the issue is not child safety and it is insulting to all school administrators to hint that someone would not close school in dangerous circumstances because of a lack of calamity days. The issue is the length of the school year. I urge the legislature to look at this issue holistically as you decide education policy.

Anonymous said...

"Why not have teachers take advantage of the time for ongoing professional development or for much needed time to collaborate with their colleagues." Because professional development needs to be set up while ahead of time.
"You can mandate that districts have online material ready to go for the kids and take advantage of online learning possibilities"
Because not every child has a computer and/or the internet at home.

Marc Schare said...

Anon 3/6/2011 - you can certainly set up professional development ahead of time and simply offer it during the calamity day. Also, while it is true that not every child has the internet at home, most kids have books or other exercises they can do. These are all solvable problems if we get consensus that we want to solve the problem. That consensus is lacking - not from an inability to take advantage of the time but because the will isn't there. It's just easier to say - SNOW DAY! and go sledding.

Post a Comment