Recent winter weather has forced school districts across the KVOE listening area — and Kansas, for that matter, to either delay or cancel school several times already just this calendar year.
USD 253 Emporia Superintendent Kevin Case detailed policies for daily cancellation and academic calendars, notably the installation of snow days and end-of-year adjustments, during KVOE’s Newsmaker 2 segment Wednesday. Case says there are a lot of moving parts — and a lot of administrators involved — as the district decides whether to delay, cancel or keep school open.
Case says each weather situation is looked at on a case-by-case basis before a decision is made. Those decisions are announced as soon as possible through KVOE as well as the district’s website and social media.
When it comes to factoring in snow days as the annual academic calendar is built, Case says the district has adjusted its approach. In years past, snow days were built into the calendar. Now the approach is to have time at the end of the academic year just in case snow days are needed.
At this point, the last day will be May 24. Case says the district will determine exactly how to proceed if more closings are announced this winter, and it should have a good sense of final calendar adjustments by spring break week in mid-March.
