Legislative Changes in School Calendar Policies
Significant legislative revisions were made to school calendar statutes in West Virginia during the 2013 legislative session, allowing more flexibility for county boards to develop calendars while ensuring a minimum of 180 instructional days. The changes mandated public hearings, set guidelines for the instructional term length, and addressed the recovery of lost instructional time and scheduling outside-of-school environment days. State Board Policy 3234 further outlined requirements for school calendars, replacing previous provisions with new guidelines.
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School Calendar Workshop School Year 2014-15 Presented by West Virginia Department of Education Division of Student Support Services
Legislative Revisions The Legislature made substantial changes to the school calendar statutes (WVC 18-5-45, 18- 5A-5, and 18A-5-2) during the 2013 legislative session through the passage of SB 359 to provide county boards more flexibility in developing a school calendar that meets their individual needs, while at the same time requiring all county boards to actually provide 180 separate days of instruction.
Legislative Revisions (Cont.) WVC 18-5-45 was further amended by HB 3157 to delay the implementation of the changes to the statute until the 2014-15 school year.
Major Changes The major legislative changes include: o Public Hearings MUST hold at least 2 public hearings each year before adopting a school calendar for the upcoming year o Instructional Term MUST provide 180 separate days of instructions o Length of Instructional Term The beginning and closing days of the minimum 200-day employment term has been extended from 43 to 48 weeks
Major Changes (Cont.) o Recovery of Lost Instructional Time MUST develop a local policy that requires the recovery of all instructional time lost due to late arrivals and early dismissals o Outside of School Environment (OS) Days MUST schedule 4 of the 6 OS days after the 130th instructional day
State Board Policy 3234 Among the new requirements of the statutes is that the State Board adopt a school calendar policy for the purpose of providing county boards guidance on the new requirements.
State Board Policy 3234 (Cont.) Rather than create a new policy, State Board Policy 3234 entitled Year-Round Education Programs was used. It was retitled School Calendar. All provisions of the previous policy were deleted and replaced with the current provisions.
State Board Policy 3234 (Cont.) The policy basically reiterated the requirements in Code; It does not include any new requirements not included in Code; The policy was placed on a 30-day public comment period by the State Board at its October 2013 meeting;
State Board Policy 3234 (Cont.) 184 comments were received from 101 separate individuals; Most dealt with Code requirements; Therefore, no changes were made as the result of the comments; The policy was adopted by the State Board on December 11, 2013; Policy is in effect beginning January 13, 2014.
Public Comment Summary The comments fell into the following four general themes or patterns: Opposition to a Year Round Calendar Make-up of Missed Instructional Time Employment Term vs. Instructional Term General
Opposition to a Year-Round Calendar Neither Code or policy mandates a year-round or balanced calendar. County boards do have the opportunity through local discretion to adopt a balanced calendar, or a variation of such a calendar, to improve student achievement by minimizing the summer learning loss and providing struggling students the opportunity to catch- up through timely intersessions.
Making up Lost Instructional Time Required by WVC 18-5-45 (d) WVC 18A-5-2 specifies that time lost due to school closures are not to be counted as meeting a part of the requirements of the minimum of 180 days of instruction.
Employment Term vs. Instructional Term WVC 18-5-45 specifies that county boards must provide an employment term for employees of at least 200 days The beginning and closing dates of the employment term may not exceed 48 weeks. Within the employment term, an instructional term of no less than 180 days is required.
General Comments Faculty Senate meetings - Neither Code or policy eliminate or diminish the requirements for boards to provide time for faculty senates to meet for 5 two-hour blocks of time during the school year. Public hearings Required by Code to provide all interested parties the opportunity to provide input in the development of the school calendar.
School Calendar Guidance General Provisions
General All county boards of education and MCVCs must prepare a school calendar and submit to the Office of School Finance for review. If there are any schools in the county that operate on a different schedule, that calendar must also be submitted for review and approval. Calendars must be prepared in Excel using the WVDE calendar form (11-20-35).
Contact Information Questions regarding the school calendar should be addressed to the Office of School Finance at (304)558-6300 or via email: Amy Willard, Executive Director of School Finance awillard@access.k12.wv.us Lisa Wilcox, Coordinator of School Finance lawilcox@access.k12.wv.us Sam Pauley, Coordinator of School Finance sepauley@access.k12.wv.us
Calendar Revisions During School Year School boards have the authority to make revisions to their approved school calendars throughout the school year, but since the original calendars require the approval of the State Superintendent before adoption, any changes affecting the rescheduling of dates also require prior approval. This applies only to a change in scheduled dates; it does not apply to the use of noninstructional days to make-up canceled instructional days when the noninstructional days are not being moved.
Submission Information Due Date = Thursday, May 1, 2014 Submit Excel calendars and graduation date schedules to the Office of School Finance via email as follows: Barbour through McDowell: Sam Pauley sepauley@access.k12.wv.us Mercer through Wyoming : Lisa Wilcox lawilcox@access.k12.wv.us
Scheduled Test Dates The proposed test windows for WESTEST II and other state- wide assessments will be posted on WVDE s website once established. WVC 18-5-45 states that the State Board may not schedule the primary statewide assessment program more than 30 days prior to the end of the instructional year. The 30 day maximum is to be determined from the last scheduled instructional day of the original school calendar as submitted to WVDE. County boards may be able to revise their testing window as the result of canceled instructional days from inclement weather in order to maximize the number of instructional days prior to the test.
Public Hearings County boards of education are now required to hold at least 2 public hearings that allow all interested parties to discuss the school calendar. It is permissible to hold more than 2 meetings if desired. MCVCs do not have to hold public hearings.
Public Hearings (Cont.) Public notice of the hearings must be published as a Class II legal advertisement, which means they must be published once a week for two successive weeks in a qualified newspaper in the publication area. Notices for all hearings can be published in one advertisement. The first notice must be published at least 10 days prior to the first hearing.
Public Hearings (Cont.) At least a quorum of county board members must be present during each public hearing. The hearing should be scheduled to last a reasonable amount of time, but should not begin before 9:00 am nor continue past 11:00 pm for convenience. In the interest of time and efficiency, oral statements may be limited in duration to a period of no less than 3 minutes each and may be supplemented with written comments.
Graduation Dates County boards are required to submit a list of graduation dates for every high school in the county using the supplemental schedule provided. County boards may not hold graduation ceremonies and release seniors earlier than 5 instructional days prior to the end of the regularly scheduled term for all students. This is determined based on the last scheduled instructional day of the original calendar submitted to WVDE for approval.
Intersessions and Summer School County boards are required to list the dates of all intersessions and summer school sessions scheduled during the school year in the spaces provided on the calendar template.
The Calendar as an Instructional Term
Instructional Term Per WVC 18-5-45, each county board must provide 180 separate instructional days for students. An instructional day is defined as a day which meets the following criteria: Instruction is provided to students for a least the minimum amount of time under SB Policy 2525 or 2510. Instructional time is used for instruction and cocurricular activities. The instruction provided meets the CSOs prescribed by the State Board
Instructional Term (Cont.) WVC 18-5-45 specifies that if a county board cannot complete 180 days of instruction with the current school calendar, the county board must schedule instruction on any available noninstructional day (other than the 7 holidays or Election day) OR use an out-of- calendar day (except for Saturdays or Sundays).
Canceled Instructional Days County boards now have discretion as to what type of day is used to make up a canceled instructional day; they can use available non-instructional days OR use an out-of-calendar day instead of remaining noninstructional days and continue to use the noninstructional days as originally scheduled. In this manner, a county board can protect a particular noninstructional day, such as the Preparation day for the closing of school, from being used as a make-up day.
Canceled Instructional Days (Cont.) If a county board does not have sufficient noninstructional days to make up all cancelled instructional days, the board must reschedule the canceled instructional days using out-of- calendar days. When an out-of-calendar day is used as a make-up day, the canceled instructional day becomes the out-of-calendar (non-paid day).
Recovery of Lost Instructional Time County board must adopt a policy that requires additional minutes of instruction to be added to each instructional day, or that entire additional instructional days to be added, to recover time lost due to late arrivals and early dismissals caused by inclement weather, the closing of schools as a result of the prevalence of contagious disease, conditions of weather or any other calamitous cause over which the board has no control.
Recovery of Lost Instructional Time (Cont.) If all schools have accumulated sufficient accrued instructional time through their regular schedules to make-up the missed time, county boards won t have to specifically add additional minutes to the school day. Every county board is responsible for tracking their own accrued instructional time records to ensure that all time lost due to school closing is made up as required.
Recovery of Lost Instructional Time (Cont.) The determination of available minutes should take into consideration any accrued instructional time minutes utilized for faculty senate meetings or professional development. School closures, early dismissals and late arrivals must also be taken into consideration when determining the amount of accrued instructional time available.
Accrued Instructional Time Accrued Instructional Time may be used: To recover time lost due to late arrivals/early dismissals due to inclement weather; closing of school due to the prevalence of contagious disease, conditions of weather or any other calamitous cause over which the board has no control. Professional development activities To accommodate the scheduling of faculty senate meetings on instructional days.
Accrued Instructional Time (Cont.) Accrued Instructional Time cannot be used to avoid 180 separate days of instruction. Accrued Instructional Time cannot be used for extracurricular activities.
Waiver Requests According to WVC 18-5-45(o), a county board may request and the State Board may grant a waiver to a county board for noncompliance with the provisions of chapter 18, 18A, 18B, or 18C of the Code of West Virginia to maintain compliance in reaching the mandatory 180 separate instructional days; Waiver requests can be submitted using the calendar waiver request form developed for this purpose, found at the following link: http://wvde.state.wv.us/policies/
The Calendar as an Employment Term
Employment Term Per WVC 18-5-45, each county board must provide for a minimum employment term for regular, full-time employees of at least 200 days, exclusive of Saturdays and Sundays, which need not be successive. The employment term is divided into ten 20- day months and each month must be shown on a separate line in the calendar form.
Employment Term (Cont.) The beginning and closing dates of the employment term may not exceed 48 weeks. The maximum number of out-of-calendar days that can be included in the school calendar is 40 days to remain within the 48 week limit. County boards that adopt a balanced calendar are required to list all 61 out-of-calendar days on the form to make it easy for users to see when the breaks and intersessions are. The extra 21 out-of- calendar days are a different color in the template.
Employment Term (Cont.) The employment term consists of no less than 180 separate instructional days and 20 noninstructional days.
Employment Term (Cont.) The 20 noninstructional days are comprised as follows (w/ symbols): 7 legal holidays (H) 1 election day (E) 6 outside the school environment days (OS), four of which must be scheduled after the 130thinstructional day 6 other noninstructional days for one of the following purposes: Curriculum Development (CD) Preparation Day (P) Continuing Professional Development (CE) Teacher-Pupil-Parent Conference (TP) Professional Meetings (PM) Make-Up Day (MU) Faculty Senate (FS)
Legal School Holidays Because WVC 18-5-45 specifies that the county boards are to provide for seven school holidays, all school calendars submitted MUST include at least 7 holidays. If an employee s employment term includes more than seven school holidays, as specified in WVC 18A-5-2, the additional days are nonpaid out-of- calendar days. This should be clearly specified in both the employment contract for personnel and the school calendar.
Legal School Holidays (Cont.) The 7 school holidays can be a combination of the following: July 4, 2014 Independence Day Sept. 1, 2014 Labor Day Nov. 11, 2014 Veteran s Day Nov. 27, 2014 Thanksgiving Day Dec. 25, 2014 Christmas Day Jan. 1, 2015 New Year s Day Jan. 19, 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. s Birthday May 25, 2015 Memorial Day June 20, 2015 West Virginia Day
Legal School Holidays (Cont.) Other legal school holidays that may need to be added to the school calendar for a particular county would be any day (except Saturday) on which a special election is held throughout the State or school district, and any day appointed and set apart by the President or Governor as a holiday or special day of observance by public schools.
Legal School Holidays (Cont.) Although not a school or State holiday, for informational purposes, Good Friday falls on April 3, 2015 and Easter falls on Sunday, April 5, 2015 during the upcoming school year.
Election Day Although elections (other than special elections) in the State are held every two years, one of the regular election dates occurs every school year, either a primary or general election. During the 2014-15 school year, a General Election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Continuing Education Days County boards are required by State Board Policy 3234 to provide all professional and service personnel employed at least 18 hours of professional development annually. County boards are no longer required to schedule at least 3 CE days with 2 of them before January 1stas in prior years. The school calendar must be developed in a manner that the requirement can be met during the minimum 200 day employment term.
Continuing Education Days (Cont.) All professional and service personnel are required to complete the number of hours provided each year by their respective county boards. County boards are not permitted to automatically dock the pay of an employee who does not complete the hours. However, they can require the employee to complete the hours on their own time without additional compensation or cite the employee for failure to meet policy requirements and suspend the employee without pay.
Faculty Senate Meetings WVC 18-5A-5(b)(12) states that a local board shall provide to each faculty senate a 2-hour block of time for a faculty senate meeting on the day scheduled for the opening of school prior to the beginning of the instructional term, and a 2-hour block of time on a noninstructional day four additional times, scheduled at least once every 45 days. The portion of the noninstructional day scheduled for the faculty senate meeting shall be considered as part of the purpose for which the noninstructional day is scheduled.
Faculty Senate Meetings (Cont.) Other Potential Faculty Senate Options: Use accrued instructional time to provide the four 2-hour blocks of time to meet during an instructional day. Every school in the district must have earned sufficient time for all faculty senates in the district to meet in that manner. The faculty senate may elect to schedule a meeting on an instructional day outside of the instructional time for students and take compensatory time off on the noninstructional day that is provided by the county board for the meeting, as long as the meeting takes place prior to the day that is scheduled in the school calendar.
