Superintendent Charles Mellon explained that six days have been missed due to weather. Two of those days will be waived by the State, two days will need to be made up by using built-in snow days within the calendar and two will need to be added to the end of the school year. Mellon said that other options have also been presented.
“Most recently there have been options presented by the State which gives schools a variety of options to choose from,” said Mellon. “I think our comments to the board were that we wanted to wait to get through February to see if we miss any more days. We will then come up to how we plan on fulfilling our obligation of 180 days.”
If the board doesn’t want to add the two days to the end of the calendar, the board could opt to offer Saturday school, extend the school day, or complete classes online. Mellon said the online option would not apply as the entire school corporation is not a one-to-one entity. The board will wait to see what happens the rest of this winter season before making any decisions.
One thing the corporation has agreed to do is push back the start of I-STEP exams.
“With the extension of the time period for the I-STEP, we will be waiting until March 11 to begin our I-STEP testing rather than March 3. It’s just kind of a wait and see-type situation.”
