Days to hours: Senate Education Committee considers changes to public school calendar
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Senate Education Committee advanced a bill on Tuesday that would count hours of instructional time spent in the public education system, instead of days.
The committee substitute for Senate Bill 890 would change the current public school requirement that a minimum of 180 instructional days per year be held, to a minimum of 900 instructional hours per school year. Also, the bill would change a minimum public school employment term from 200 days to 1,600 hours per year and would convert any other public school calendar requirements from days and months to hours, based on an eight-hour employment day and a five-hour instructional day.
The bill also includes language that would change the employment term required for the opening of school from one day to at least 16 hours – or a minimum of two days – and provides that an employee’s personal leave is to be calculated based on an eight hour work day in order to address the possibility that a county school district may decide to switch from a five day per week school schedule to a four day per week school schedule under this proposed law.
As discussed during the committee meeting, the intent of this bill is to give more local control to county boards of education as well as more flexibility in scheduling. However, Sen. Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, said that this bill is not a good idea.
“I am concerned that this would give the flexibility to county school boards to opt for four day school weeks, and I think that would really create havoc on families in West Virginia,” Oliverio said of his opposition to the bill. “It’s one thing to scramble and find childcare for a random day, on a snow day, or on President’s Day. I think it’s entirely different for a 35-36 week school year to be looking for child care every Wednesday or every Friday or whatever the case would be.”
Oliverio said that his district includes a lot of residents who work in healthcare and who need consistency.
“In terms of national rankings, we already struggle tremendously with having available childcare as it is, and I’m just concerned that this would take us in a direction, while designed to give some flexibility and give some opportunities at that county level, that would really adversely impact families,” Oliverio stated.
Sen. Rollan Roberts, R-Raleigh, lead sponsor of the bill, said that this would decrease regulations and give counties the ability to make decisions for their area.
“We are diverse,” Roberts said of West Virginia and its counties. “What’s going on in the eastern panhandle is different than what’s going on in southern West Virginia.”
Roberts said this bill would provide the opportunity for a school board to open public schools year-round and may help with county financial problems – especially for those counties that have bus transportation concerns.
“We have counties that are rural. They are driving thousands of miles a day with all of their routes, and so if they chose to adjust that sometimes, it wouldn’t have to be a four-day week, it could be a block of time,” Roberts said, noting that at his private school (Victory Baptist Academy in Raleigh County) there is a four-day weekend every month.
“Families can plan vacations, they can do whatever they want to do then, and it gives everybody a break,” Roberts said, adding that the hours instead of days calendar, which has been approved for private schools, has worked and may be a “breath of fresh air” for public education.
“I have had no parents complain about how we’ve done it,” Roberts added. “And, I don’t know what all of the other counties are going to do, but I do know that that transportation issue is a big issue in a lot of counties. And, that may influence things.”
Senate Education Committee Chair and teacher Amy Grady, R-Mason, said that she signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill, adding that the “quantity of instruction does not equal the quality of instruction.”
“So, because we are in school for a longer amount of time does not necessarily mean the quality of instruction is better than if you’re there a little bit shorter of time,” Grady explained. “So I think we need to consider that and make sure that we’re focusing on quality over quantity. This allows some flexibility for our counties, which is what they’ve been asking for all along. We implemented it last year with non-public schools, and I remember members of this committee said, ‘Why aren’t we doing this for public schools?’ Well, here we are.”
Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, proposed an amendment to ensure that language in the bill does not interfere with the employment term requirements for the Teachers’ Retirement System, changing the definition to 160 employment hours or 20 employment days per month, instead of just 20 employment days per month.
After the amendment was approved, the committee substitute for Senate Bill 890 was advanced to the full Senate for further consideration.
