BY RILEY WILSON
The possibility of starting Eudora schools later on inclement weather days rather than canceling classes altogether depends on the support of school staff, parents and community members.
After missing six full days of school in the 2018-2019 school year, and four days in the 2017-2018 year due to inclement weather, school officials began investigating alternatives.
Now, the district is looking at the impact of a one- to two-hour delay in cases where the weather clears later in the day, rather than canceling a full day of school.
“Typically, when weather is bad, you’ve got the idea of ‘OK, do we cancel school?’ That’s been our practice. Or, would a late start, how would that benefit the district?” said Mark Dodge, the district’s director of school improvement and communications.
The potential late start schedule would have no effect on the end of the school day, unlike traditional alternatives of adding time to the end of the day.
Parents, staff and community members who are signed up for communication from the School District recently received a survey about the late start proposal to help the district gauge community input.
Questions included how long it typically takes staff to get to work, how students get to school, what impact a late start day would have and what one’s support would be for a delayed start. The deadline to respond to the survey is Friday.
“Our goal is to maximize instructional time, but more importantly, make sure that any decisions we make, we’re providing safety for students and staff involved here. In order to do so, we want to develop a collaborative process,” Dodge said.
Once the survey closes, Dodge said a committee made up of school staff will discuss the responses.
Committee member and School Board Vice President Joseph Hurla said deciding on a late start schedule is a matter of balancing what works for everyone.
As parents, staff and community members have varying schedules, Hurla said his role is to observe the responses and relay them back to the board to continue evaluating the option.
“Because ultimately, the board makes the decision, but we want that decision to be a reflection of the bests interests of everyone involved,” Hurla said.
According to the Kansas Legislature, required instruction time varies depending on grade level. Students in kindergarten must receive at least 465 hours of education. First through 11th grade students must receive at least 1,116 hours. Students in 12th grade are required to have at least 1,086 hours.
To reach these required education times, Dodge said Eudora has typically added time to the end of the day after canceling too many days due to inclement weather.
When asked for input on this later start proposal, a representative of the Eudora Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization declined to comment.
However, Jeremiah Holcomb, a father of five and pastor at the Refuge Christian Church, supports a late start schedule on inclement weather days.
Holcomb, who has three children in elementary school and two children in child care, said he thinks starting the day later would be more educationally beneficial than adding minutes to the end of the day.
“To me, it’s a no brainer. I’m glad they’re having the conversation,” Holcomb said.
Holcomb said his wife, who teaches kindergarten at Eudora Elementary, has to do additional planning when extra minutes get added to the end of the day.
Having a late start day would be beneficial to teachers because they wouldn’t have to scramble for extra activities when time is added due to canceled days, he said. Additionally, he said it would keep students more in routine.
“It’s really not improving education whereas a late start, I think, it still keeps people fairly in routine. Especially on the days where again, it might be icy early, but we live in Kansas, it might warm up and the road crews can have our streets in a way that it still is safe to transport to and from school and the buses can still get there on time,” Holcomb said.
Parents and staff have until Friday to respond to the survey with their thoughts. Anyone interested in completing the survey and receiving district communications should contact the district office at (785) 542-4910.
Reach reporter Riley Wilson at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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