To the Editor:
A public scandal is developing right under our nose and the news media chooses to ignore it. Ohio requires public schools be in session 180 days a year, actually 178 days with two days for in-service days. Statewide, millions of dollars are wasted by school districts canceling or delaying classes because of weather conditions. For example, the cost to operate Edison Local Schools is over $100,000 per day, $15,000 an hour.
People living in any other school district can learn how much money their district is wasting on time not made up by dividing their district operating budget by 180 days. Every day lost, every hour lost should be made up. Days lost should be made up as the school year goes along not tacking make up days on at the end of the year. For instance, if two days are lost the second week of January, then use King day and Presidents Day to make them up.
If the state legislature decreed that any delays in the morning would extend the afternoon dismissal time, the two-hour delay would come to a screeching halt right now.
School used to be called off when we had blizzard conditions, drifting snow that closed county and township roads. Kids would wait for the buses that were late or never showed up and nobody died from the experience. School is delayed or cancelled now when, years ago, not only would we have school, it wouldn’t occur to anyone (students, parents or school employees), not to have school. Drivers would chain their buses and away they went. Of course, it takes some effort to put chains on buses and some drivers can’t or won’t tackle this job. This situation costs school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
In a letter to an Edison superintendent some years ago, I wrote that our area is still at 40 degrees north latitude and somehow we have our winter conditions in the wintertime. The news media calls two or three inches of snow a winter storm. That used to be known as a dusting. A few inches of snow shouldn’t close or delay the school day. I don’t think the superintendent cared for my advice.
The bottom line is that all these cancellations and delays can’t help but hurt the learning process for students. School districts are collecting taxes to operate our schools 180 days, seven hours a day and by gosh they better be doing it or else don’t ask for additional money.
When school districts lose instructional time without making it up, they are betraying the public who pay the bills.
Warner Sanders
Toronto, OH
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