By Stephen Smoot
Across the state, county school systems are holding lawfully mandated public meetings to allow for comment on the calendar that will govern schools next year. Some aspects of the calendar are at the discretion of the school system. For example, Hardy, Grant and Pendleton counties used to synchronize their calendars precisely to accommodate South Branch Career and Technical Center, but Hardy last year opted to form its own slightly different version.
In their opening meeting of the year, Sheena Van Meter, Hardy County Schools superintendent, and official Josh See discussed that change. They shared that Hardy County preferred a different start date. See speculated, “It’s almost like they collaborate, but we’re outnumbered.”
Two terms apply within the calendar. The instructional term refers to the “180 separate days of instruction” mandated by an act of the West Virginia State Legislature in 2013. The state defines an instructional day as such, “the time allocated within the school day for the teaching and mastery of standards, and does not include lunch, recess, homeroom, class changes, breaks, and other non-instructional activities.”
Different grades have different definitions of the required length of their instructional time. Pre-kindergarten must have a minimum of 1,500 minutes per week and 48,000 minutes per school year. Kindergarten through fifth grade, must have a minimum of 315 minutes per day with sixth through eighth, 330, and ninth through the senior year, 345 minutes per day.
State law also makes reference to an “instructional term” of 200 days, the length of which extends to “the beginning and closing days of the minimum 200-day employment term not to extend past 48 weeks.”
All school calendars must include 20 compensated non-taught days. Non-instructional Days are days when school is in session, but students are not present, however, some compensated non-taught days include holidays, election days, and outside school environment days when school personnel may not report to work
Although classes may not be held and students may not be present, non-instructional days include days for curriculum development, opening or closing the school at the beginning or end of the year, and professional learning opportunities.
County boards can have more than 180 instructional days, but must extend the non-instructional term as well.
West Virginia Code going back to the 1980s has included setting aside days where a school’s faculty senate may convene. Those meetings occur at the beginning and end, plus in October, December, February, and April. In the past, some systems opted to schedule them for days off, but they may also take place after planned early dismissal.
The specific days selected are within the purview of the school system and serve as one area where counties may need to establish different schedules for whatever reason.
Here is where mathematics comes in. As the state says that “all county boards must add minutes to the minimum instructional day in order to compensate for early dismissals, late arrivals, and faculty senate meetings.” When “school boards add 1-29 minutes to the minimum instructional day” they “ensure that over the course of the instructional term, students will receive instruction for the amount of time equivalent to 180 separate instructional days. County boards can also augment this by granting “a minimum of 30 minutes to each school’s instructional day in the district,” again to ensure that they meet the 180-day mandate.
Equivalent time can be used to plan up to five days or the equivalent for professional learning absent students. They may also be used to make up for days off due to inclement weather and mitigate unplanned later arrivals and early dismissals, assemblies, or faculty senates.
The state suggests, but does not require, that boards add the 30 or more minutes of instructional time and submit a plan on how to use the non-instructional days to offset unplanned school closings for weather or other reasons. Those systems that select both “will provide county boards the flexibility of having 15 days, and only 15 days, when schools utilize equivalent time AND have a NTID plan on file with the WVDE” (West Virginia Department of Education).
A breakdown of how those 15 days may be utilized says up to five “for inclement weather or some other emergency,” up to five for “professional learning experiences,” and “up to five days of instruction carried out in a non-traditional manner.” This flexibility helps to reduce the likelihood, or the amount, of days added to the end of the school year to add up to 180.
Some school systems opt to start using their non-traditional instruction days first during periods where weather forces school closures. Others prefer using up different categories first. It depends on the specific and different needs of each school district how they choose to work within that flexibility.
Finally, with an early Easter coming in 2027, Good Friday and the Monday after Easter will be categorized as Out of Calendar Days to “avoid having two months with no breaks” (February and March).
Many who have children or grandchildren in school today remember the old-fashioned system where schools simply had a set allowed number of “snow days” before extending the term. Though this has enormous complexities, it gives much more flexibility to county school systems to avoid holding days of in class instruction after the planned end to the school year.
