End of school stays on May 20 after governor inks bill
Published 12:00 pm Friday, February 25, 2011
Students in the Vicksburg Warren School District should expect May 20 to remain the last day of school following Gov. Haley Barbour’s signing of a snow days-related bill Thursday.
The district’s plan to make up work missed due to weather cancellations, a requirement of the bill, involve longer school days but still have to be finalized and approved by the state education board.
“I signed this bill based on a commitment made to me by Mississippi Board of Education Chairman Charles McClelland and State Superintendent of Education Tom Burnham that all days missed will be made up prior to the end of the school year,” Barbour said through a spokesman. “We don’t need our schoolchildren going to school less days. They need to go more days. I appreciate the cooperation of the chairman and the superintendent in giving me this assurance.”
Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Duran Swinford said she had not seen the final, signed version of the bill but that the district already had been planning for students to make up work missed when three days were canceled due to snow and ice in January and February.
The plan calls for longer school days, temporarily.
“We want to extend the day over a period of time before testing begins,” Swinford said Thursday afternoon. “That would be more beneficial to us than adding days at the end of May.”
Swinford said a formal plan would be submitted to the Mississippi Board of Education.
Swinford would not say how many minutes would be added to the school day but that it would be a significant amount, not just a few. The adjusted schedule would begin as soon as possible so the necessary material can be covered before mandatory state tests begin early in May.
“We will, of course, continue transportation and make sure the kids get home safely,” Swinford said.
Currently, the school schedules are:
• Junior high — classes begin at 7:32; last bell rings at 2:20.
• High school — classes begin at 7:40; last bell rings at 2:40.
• Elementary — classes begin at 8:20; buses leave campus at 3:15.
The new law allows the state education board to let local school districts cut their school year, normally mandated at 180 days, by up to 10 days if they show how the work missed will be made up.
Because of snowfalls and freezes this year, many districts across the state have had to cancel school multiple days this year.