Winter in Nebraska

It has been a long winter in Nebraska! The bad news is, winter is not quite done yet with cold temperatures and possible snow the next week or two. The good news is, spring is just around the corner with its promise of warmer temperatures, April showers, and May flowers. The question on everyone’s mind is, how will we make up our snow days?

A bit of history might be helpful. The State of Nebraska requires that students attend 1,080 instructional hours at the middle school and high school and 1,032 hours at the elementary level. PLCS typically schedules 175 instructional days per year, so if we have three or fewer snow days, we are well above the state requirement. To be safe, we typically build extra days into the calendar at the end of the year and designate them as make-up days if four or more snow days are used.  We put these dates on the calendar a year in advance so parents and staff can plan accordingly.

This year, of course, was unusual. In my previous five years as Superintendent, we had three or fewer cancellations every year. As of today, we have canceled school six times. Following the calendar adopted by our Board of Education, that means our last day of school will be pushed back from Thursday, May 23 to Wednesday, May 29. The 29th will be an early release day. Seniors last day will be pushed back from Thursday, May 9 to Friday, May 10. Bringing back students and staff after Memorial Day isn’t ideal, but the alternatives are equally challenging.

We considered adding minutes to the school day, but this solution has many drawbacks. We would likely need to add at least 25-30 minutes per day until the end of the year to make up the three extra snow days. This would create issues for parents at pickup/drop off, create challenges for our busing schedule, and would push back evening activities. Likewise, we discussed taking back days that were scheduled for break, including Spring Break. However, we know many families schedule vacations during this time and holding school on these dates would create hardships for many.  We did not want to suddenly change a calendar that was published a year in advance with designated snow days.

If your family is like mine, everyone is getting cabin fever and looking forward to being outside. We understand that coming back for 2-3 days after Memorial Day will create some issues for staff and families, but we believe it is the best way to make up lost teaching time while also satisfying our state requirements. Thank you for all you do to support our students and our schools. Stay warm and #Be Kind!