BELLVILLE, Ohio–The Clear Fork Board of Education approved extended school days at their meeting on Thursday, March 12. The board approved the addition of 30 minutes to each school day as needed to be used to make up time due to calamity days, in addition to currently scheduled make-up days.
Superintendent Janice Wyckoff noted at the meeting that the extension would be in effect from Tuesday, March 17 to Friday, April 17, and would add 15 minutes to the beginning and 15 to the end of each school day.
An alert message was issued via Ohio Alerts stating that all morning busses will run 15 minutes early and all afternoon busses will run 15 minutes later during that time period.
Gov. John Kasich signed legislation in March 2014 that provides schools with four additional calamity days. Districts first have to make up four snow days before they can tap the extra calamity days contained in the bill.
The legislation allows schools to make up days in 30-minute increments or by assigning take-home work, or “blizzard bags.” Clear Fork did not adopt blizzard bags.
Minimum hours of instruction replaced the calendar of school days. Beginning with the 2014-2015 school year, the Ohio Department of Education determined that schools may schedule “excess” hours above the minimum number.
Hours missed above the minimum do not have to be made up. However, if a school closes enough that it will fall below the minimum number of hours, the school must extend its scheduled year.
For more about how Richland County schools responded to changes for calamity days, see our January story.
