Logical leniency vs. 180-day stipulation

As published in the Record Journal Monday April 1, 2013

From the Editorial Pages

In academic years with classes canceled repeatedly because of extraordinary, adverse atmospheric conditions, state Education Commission officials should grant exceptions to the 180-school-day requirement. Having lost much time to Superstorm Sandy and Blizzard Nemo, Wallingford’s education district applied for such leniency. Connecticut officials denied the request.

Summer make-up days are depleted. Wallingford School Superintendent Salvatore Menzo will now have to find hours elsewhere. Possibilities include shortening April vacation, holding classes on Memorial Day and converting the last professional development date, May 24, into a regular day.

Opening schools on Memorial Day, as Menzo persuasively opined in our March 28 news story, is to be considered only after exhaustion of other alternatives. On this holiday, kids should not be in classes but attending remembrance parades and services.

Another method for offsetting the unusual number of cancelations in the 2012-2013 academic year could be adding on time to the end or beginning of school days. This concept is also flawed. Complications abound. Which classes get extra minutes? How would contracted busing companies react? How would this affect workers if they’re paid hourly? And this would impede upon personal schedules, such as after- hours commitments, clubs and sports programs.

Instead, Menzo should curtail April vacation and change that professional development day. Even these options have downsides. Regular training is an essential manner of keeping Wallingford employees highly skilled and up-to-date with best practices, to the benefit of pupils. And April is an opportune period for some respite. After many days of schoolwork, with important end-of-year exams imminent, and, for some high-school seniors, facing final collegiate decisions, students need a break before the last push of the education year. Many Wallingford families with kids, and academic staff, likely have already scheduled April vacations.

State officials could solve these issues by granting well-reasoned exceptions to the 180-day stipulation. Education Commission representatives told Menzo that they were wary of setting a precedent of abridged school years, and that he hadn’t yet used up substitute options. Although the latter may be valid, the former is a needless concern.

In typical years, Connecticut’s Education Commission has no reason to alter the requirement. Not wanting to truncate the 2012-2013 academic calendar at this point is understandable. However, lowering class-attendance obligations due to rashes of cancelations amidst series of severe storms would not establish a troublesome standard. In future years significantly affected by weather, permitting up-to five fewer mandated days to help time-squeezed school districts statewide would only set precedent for logical leniency.