Several school districts throughout Northern Michigan have far exceeded state-forgiven snow days following an historic blizzard and record-breaking flooding.
Michigan law allows schools six snow days per year, with the option to apply for three more. Schools that went over that amount must add on days at the end of the year or pay a fine, unless legislation is passed that forgives those extra days.
State Representative’s Parker Fairbairn, R-Harbor Springs, and Dave Prestin, R-Cedar River, introduced bills that would give schools more days this year.
“The normal allotment of snow days is set with a reasonable expectation of typical winter weather,” Fairbairn said. “However, this is the second consecutive year of unusually severe storms resulting in more days on which student instruction could not be provided in school districts throughout Northern Michigan and the U.P.”
Fairbarin says he thinks under extreme circumstances schools should have the choice to apply for more forgiven days.
Johannesburg Lewiston area school’s superintendent, Katy Xenakis-Makowski, represents the northern lower peninsula for the Michigan Association of Superintendents.
Xenakis-Makowski said her district was luckier than others, with only five days to make up at the end of the year.
“Some of the districts had to close by order of the emergency managers because of flooding,” Xenakis-Makowski. “Others couldn't run their bus routes because roads were washed away.”
Extra days cost more
Cheboygan area schools lost a week of instruction during a blizzard in March with snow levels that drifted to the tops of some of their school buildings. They were out of school for three more days during last week's flooding because of local evacuation orders.
Michelle Chase, a fourth-grade teacher in Cheboygan says she’s planning for two extra weeks at the end of the school year.
“Those extra days are extra cost to us because our hourly employees that we have to have," Chase said. "We have to have bus drivers, have to have aides, we have to have kitchen staff."
Chase says those extra days weren’t budgeted for at the start of the year.
Robert Vaught, superintendent for Detour Area Schools in the eastern Upper Peninsula, says a majority of parents, students and teachers work summer jobs that start soon after labor day.
“So, to try to bring back, our kids back in June is not going to happen,” Vaught said. “We sometimes have to eat that cost.”
The district paid around $3,200 in fines for not making up extra days last year, according to Vaught.
Between graduating seniors, summer jobs and family plans, attendance during extra days can be slim, Chase says.
“The big worry that we have anytime we add days to the end of the school year is meeting the attendance requirement,” Chase said.
If those days aren’t counted by the state, Chase says they aren’t funded.
When students do show up, Xenakis-Makowski says lessons aren’t as impactful.
“The level of education that gets done then is vastly different,” Xenakis-Makowski said. “It's a really hard time of year to keep students engaged.”
Chase says after disasters like these, keeping students engaged during any point of the school year has been difficult.
“We had kids displaced from their homes because their homes flooded or they were evacuated,” Chase said. “We're having to deal with the trauma with the kids coming back after having been displaced.”
Long-term solutions
Every school in Michigan is held to the same standard under the law – six snow days, 180 days in session and 1,098 hours of instruction.
Xenakis-Makowski says that’s not sustainable, even when school districts start earlier in the year to plan.
“One rule isn't going to fit all in the state,” Xenakis-Makowski said. “Southeastern Michigan does not face the weather we do here.”
Changing the law to only require a set number of hours could be a solution, Xenakis-Makowski says adding longer days in the middle of the year would be more helpful to students.
But even that would take careful planning to coordinate, Xenakis-Makowski says.
Xenakis-Makowski said the bottom line is “we need to prepare for these weather events.”
