West Virginia's Senate approved Wednesday a bill that would end a requirement - which the governor has supported in the past - for a minimum of 180 separate instructional days for K-12 schools, even when they miss many days due to snow.
House Bill 4171, which passed the Senate with no amendments after the House voted 94-5 for it late last month, would also bar traditional calendar schools from having students start before Aug. 10 or leave after June 10. Only senators Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, and Douglas Facemire, D-Braxton, voted against the bill in the Senate.
State Department of Education spokeswoman Kristin Anderson said Greenbrier County, which started school Aug. 6, and Wayne County, which started school Aug. 7, were the only school systems that started before Aug. 10 this school year.
She also noted the early start date is important to Greenbrier, which after starting school lets students out for a week for the State Fair of West Virginia. The event is held there annually near the start of the school year. Kanawha's already approved calendar for next school year would have students return Aug. 8. Students came back Aug. 10 this school year. With the Senate voting to make the bill effective from passage, and with the House voting to make it effective July 1, it's currently yet to be determined what counties may do with their current and upcoming calendars.
House Bill 4171 deletes the word "separate" from the phrase "one hundred eighty separate instructional days" in current law. It also adds language saying that the instructional minutes counties build up over time - by keeping students in class longer each day than the state-set minimum daily instructional time - can be used to make up days lost due to inclement weather or emergencies.
The state Board of Education currently allows school systems to use these "accrued" minutes to make up time lost due only to late arrivals or early dismissals.
In April 2015, following another harsh winter that caused many counties to cancel an abnormally high number of school days, the board denied requests by 27 counties that applied for make-up-day forgiveness. The counties had all requested to use banked minutes to make up for entire days.
State school board attorney Mary Catherine Tuckwiller told state school board members before they shot down the waivers that using the time to make up whole days would be illegal under a state law that took effect due to Senate Bill 359, Tomblin's wide-ranging education bill.
Tomblin spokesman Chris Stadelman had said the governor spoke with state Schools Superintendent Michael Martirano about his wish that the strict 180-separate-days requirement remain. Tomblin can veto this year's bill.
"Governor Tomblin is interested in a number of provisions that are part of the bill, particularly making sure our state's students are in the classroom for 180 separate days of instructional time," Stadelman wrote Wednesday in an emailed response to a reporter.
"Once our office receives the bill, the governor will review the specifics with his policy and legal teams before making a final decision," Stadelman wrote.
The bill would still require that the banked instructional minutes be used first to make up for late arrivals and early dismissals. It also requires counties to exhaust any "reimagining student instructional days" granted to them by the state school board before using the instructional minutes to make up entire days.
Last month, the board approved a policy for these reimagined days. Sarah Stewart, the education department's director of policy and government relations, said previously passed legislation authorized the board to offer these days.
Under the policy, counties could be allowed to let students complete work at home on snow days and count those at-home days as part of the requirement for 180 separate instructional days. Anderson said three Northern Panhandle counties have already been approved to use reimagined days for the current school year, and counties can request to use reimagined days for next school year's calendars.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.