March 28, 2011 -- Mentor Public Schools is now planning to extend the 2010-2011 school year two days this June to make up for missed school during winter. Per the district’s contract with its employees, the makeup days are scheduled for Friday, June 10 and Monday, June 13.
District administrators made this decision based on new calamity days legislation in Ohio (House Bill 36), that is expected to be passed into law relatively soon. District-wide, Mentor Schools used seven calamity days this winter. We know many families have since had questions about when potential makeup days would be and how many.
The new legislation will allow school districts five calamity days before makeups are required rather than three under the current law. There is also a program included in the bill called “Blizzard Bag”, which would allow districts to not make up an additional three calamity days (beyond the five), if 80 percent of students completed a prepared assignment, either take-home or online, instead.
Our best interpretation of the new law at this point is that the Blizzard Bag program will not go into effect until next school year, as districts will need time to prepare the assignments, and then get them approved by the Ohio Department of Education.
The situation is different for Garfield Elementary School. Garfield has used ten calamity days this school year and will be required to make up five of them. One has already been done, with the remaining four scheduled for April 21, June 10 and June 13 & 14.
The district will operate as normal on all makeup days including buses, lunch and We Care. If you have any questions regarding makeup days please contact the webmaster.
