Clearing KPS school bus lot
Heavy snowfall and dangerously low wind chills this winter forced a number of school cancellations, but districts have some flexibility in how they make up that time now.
(File photo)
LANSING -- A provision tucked into the revised School Aid funding measure signed by Gov. Rick Snyder last Friday gives schools more flexibility in how they deal with days missed because of snow and bone-chilling temperatures this winter.
The supplemental budget bill, which passed the legislature in late March, includes a provision which gives districts the option to hold classes for only 174 days if they had more than that amount originally scheduled.
The provision still requires schools to offer a minimum of 1,098 hours of instruction even if they forgo making up the additional scheduled days. State law mandates the number of hours schools must be in session in order to be eligible for state aid payments.
Lawmakers had been looking at a "long-term fix" for snow days, with Rep. Phil Potvin (R-Cadillac) introducing a bill in February to let schools change the length of school days rather than lengthening their calendars.
That measure, House Bill 5285, would have allowed schools to add a minimum of 30 minutes to the remaining days on the calendar to reach the hourly minimum while exempting them from the required number of days.
The bill was referred to the House Education Committee, where it has not received a hearing. A similar measure was passed in 2013, but the Michigan Department of Education said only a few districts chose to extend their school days rather than adding full days to the calendar.
Following Friday's signing of the budget bill, at least one West Michigan district, Grandville Public Schools, chose to cancel a scheduled makeup day around Memorial Day weekend.
The district canceled the day because it had enough hours scheduled to meet the required minimum, the superintendent said in a letter sent to parents.
Heavy snowfall and wind chill values that dropped below -20 degrees Fahrenheit this winter forced districts across the state to cancel classes in January and early February. Many schools chose to collaborate on deciding when wind chills were too cold for school, with Ingham County schools deciding on -20 as a bar while some West Michigan schools opted for -30 as the limit.
Brian Smith is the statewide education and courts reporter for MLive. Email him at bsmith11@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.