Gwinn Area Community Schools Superintendent Sara Croney felt lucky when a “generational” snow storm hit her northern Michigan home — she only got 3 feet of snow.
Most of the families in her district, however, were crushed under more than 4 feet of snow last month. Her high-altitude, rural district of 900 students was out of school for four days as they dug their way out of the devastating blizzard.
“Our students and staff, it was to the point where (they had) cabin fever, ‘we’re ready to go back to school,'” Croney said.
In all, Gwinn was out of school 14 days this school year due to extreme weather events.
Gwinn is one of many districts across the Upper Peninsula and the northern part of the Lower Peninsula asking the state Legislature for forgiveness for days missed. If they don’t get it, they will have to add days of school or risk losing state funding.
Several Michigan House lawmakers introduced a bill Thursday to forgive an additional four days. It’s not clear whether the bill will move forward, but if passed, it would absolve districts like Gwinn from having to add days to their calendar, cutting into summer vacation for both staff and students.
“This is an interesting situation that we find ourselves in,” Marquette-Alger RESA Superintendent Gregory Nyen said. “As educators, we certainly are always advocating for more instructional opportunity time, not less. Yet we find ourselves in a position this year with an extremely hard winter in the Upper Peninsula.”
One station in the UP’s Luce County reported 52 inches of snow over 48 hours, while a location at Cusino Lake in Schoolcraft County reported a two-day total of 48.5 inches, setting new record highs, according to the National Weather Service.
The Marquette-Alger RESA sent a letter to three legislators with signatures from superintendents across the two-county area, explaining how the hard winter had affected school days and asking for exceptions to be made.
“The severity of this winter has forced many of our districts to cancel between twelve and thirteen days of instruction, rapidly exhausting the three additional days available from the Department beyond the initial six statutory days,” the letter read. “Moreover, conditions on several days presented a significant risk of falling below the 75% attendance threshold required to count a day of instruction.”
The letter also noted that winter lasts well into spring in the UP, and further cancellations could still be necessary through the end of the school year.
What’s Michigan’s requirement for school days and exemptions
Michigan requires schools to have 180 days on their calendar, but allows for up to six days called off due to circumstances out of the district’s control, from weather to building conditions or other unforeseen issues.
After those six days are exhausted, school districts can decide to add days to their calendars or submit a waiver to the Michigan Department of Education to forgive an additional three days. Only the Legislature has the power to forgive any days beyond that.
School districts also have some flexibility to make days designated for professional development count as instructional days if those days have at least five hours of training related to instruction.
“We know that students can’t learn if they’re not in school,” Michigan Deputy Superintendent Diane Golzynski said. “So if we’re closing school, if the students are absent, whatever it is, they can’t learn if they’re not there. And so our job is to assure that they’re learning, which means that we need to assure that they get as much instructional time as possible.”
What Education Department required in UP’s Gwinn district
In the case of Gwinn schools, the Michigan Department of Education determined the district would only have to add two additional days. Croney said that wasn’t bad, considering how many days they’d had off school. But it could still present problems for staff and families, she said, who may have other plans.
The district also has to have at least 60% of the student body present on those days for it to count; otherwise, the school could lose a prorated amount of state aid.
The proposed bill, House Bill 5797, would forgive up to four additional days for schools in 42 northern Michigan and UP counties named in the bill, as well as any other county that had a state of emergency declaration during the school year.
The office of Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, did not respond Friday to a request for comment on whether the bill might advance. Similar bills have passed in previous years after significant weather events that disrupted the school year more than usual.
Nyen said he hadn’t heard back from the RESA’s letter yet and hoped the bill would move forward. While school cancellations are the norm every year up north, he said, this year was an anomaly. Many districts were out of school for a full week in March after the blizzard. The region, he said, got 100 inches more snow than an average winter this year, including over 4 feet over two days in March.
“There was a lot of attention given to the fact that this is a generational storm, and so we’re not asking for the regular allocation of snow days to be changed, and to be ongoing, or furthermore a greater number of snow days,” Nyen said. “We’re asking for a one-off. This was an exceptional year, so we’re asking for some temporary forgiveness.”
In the future, Gwinn said, she plans to advise staff and students to anticipate the need for adding days to the end of the year.
“In the future, do not book your family vacation so close to when school is going to end,” she said. “Because we don’t know what this weather pattern is going to do for the following year.”
jpignolet@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Record snow prompts Michigan schools to seek relief from adding days
Reporting by Jennifer Pignolet, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
