Graduation won’t be pushed back – yet – as students catch up.
Ice-rink roads plus broken boughs plus an early morning bomb threat equals biology by the bleachers.
It’s unclear if that equation meets the state’s math curriculum standards, but students and teachers at Bainbridge public schools are nonetheless subject to its sum after an exponential increase in unscheduled school closures.
“It’s been a little stressful,” said Katie Zonoff, who teaches social studies at Bainbridge High School. “Obviously, when school is canceled students get more time to relax, but then each moment in the classroom becomes more and more important.
“We’re pushing them pretty hard.”
Halfway through the school year, moments of elevated importance are much more common than in previous years.
The total number of canceled class days already stands at five, and that doesn’t include hours shaved off by weather-induced late arrivals.
No school days were canceled last year.
For students staring down growing workloads and high-pressure testing, it means squeezing in extra studying, as one BHS cheerleader, trying to master biology, did this week at halftime of the boys’ basketball game.
For teachers trying to help students keep pace, it means finding ways to make up for missed instruction.
Making up for lost time can be a tricky proposition for school officials as well, who have some flexibility but must comply with state guidelines.
Bainbridge schools were closed for three consecutive days in November due to snow. Those days will be tacked on to the end of the school year, which will now end June 22, instead of June 19, as originally planned.
BHS Principal Brent Peterson said the school district won’t move graduation, scheduled for June 16, barring several more school closures between now and the end of the year.
The district will, though, apply for a waiver from the state for the missed day on Dec. 15, when classes were canceled after the wind storm knocked out power.
Waivers can be granted if an emergency was declared in the county in which a district is located. To meet the state requirement of 1,000 instruction hours per year, the district will likely extend to a full day a scheduled half-day on March 7.
Emergency situations, like the Jan. 23 bomb threat that canceled classes at BHS and a power outage at Blakely Elementary that earlier this month canceled school there, will not be made up. Neither will three two-hour late starts during the month of January.
That means teachers and students must do what they can to stay afloat minus a considerable number of school hours.
Last week’s bomb threat at BHS came during finals week, causing extra stress to students and staff, who had to adjust to a shuffled schedule.
In some cases, Zonoff said, portions of curriculum must be abbreviated or cut out entirely. Adjusting is easier for year-long classes, but for classes like Zonoff’s World Religion, which is only a semester long, catching up is more difficult.
“It’s not a crisis situation, but I’ve had to chop quite a bit,” she said. “Students still got a taste of different religions, but not as much as they normally would have.”
Though inconvenienced by the cancellations, Bainbridge schools have been fortunate compared to some districts around the region.
Of 35 schools within the Puget Sound Educational Service District, most have canceled at least four days of school so far this year.
Riverview School District, in east King County, has canceled 10 days total due to flooding, snow and power failure.
Both Bellevue and Mercer Island school districts have canceled eight.
Kent and Vashon Island school districts, meanwhile, somehow avoided nature’s wrath, to the extent that neither were forced to cancel any school days.
Seattle Public Schools recently announced plans to extend its school year by two days to make up for canceled classes.
Two other days will be made up on days that were originally scheduled as days off.
Most districts have chosen similar responses, applying for waivers where possible and making up the rest of the time on previously scheduled days off or at the end of the year.
In some cases, the repercussions of missed school have stretched beyond the classroom.
The Bainbridge Rotary Auction has already been pushed back to July 6-7, due to the longer school year.
Organizers need time to sort through piles of donations and set up for the event, held each year at Woodward Middle School, and can’t start working until students are out of school.
Fearing further scheduling hassles, district officials now are looking ahead and hoping the island has seen the worst of this winter’s weather.
Meteorologists have suggested that the continued development of an el Nino cycle – a periodic warming of the ocean that influences weather patterns across the continent – will likely steer the area toward milder weather.
Still, as Superintendent Ken Crawford noted, there are no infallible equations when it comes to forecasting the weather.
“We’ll just keep our fingers crossed,” he said, “and monitor and adjust as necessary.”
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Hold that gavel
Because bad weather has extended the school year, the 2007 Rotary Auction will likely come after the Fourth of July. Barring further school cancellations, this year’s auction will happen July 6-7, a week later than originally scheduled.
“We always tell people it’s a soft date,” said Rotarian Joanne Ellis. “Until the snow has really stopped flying, you just never know.”
