Ohio has long awarded districts five calamity days – school days that can be missed and not made up due to inclement weather, power outages, or other catastrophic incidents. In 2009, Governor Strickland argued – as one of the stronger components of his education reform package – that Ohio in fact needed to add days to the school year to catch up with our better-performing peers nationally and internationally. The legislature balked at finding the funding to add more days to the school year and compromised with the governor by reducing the number of calamity days from five to three, in effect lengthening the school year at no cost. Strickland’s intention was to continue reducing the number of calamity days down to zero and then begin lengthening the school year after that.
What a difference an $8 billion budget hole, an election, and an unusually snowy winter, makes.
Districts were plowing through snow days in mid-December, an oddity for most of Ohio, and by mid-January many districts, especially rural ones, had used up their allotted days and were rearranging the remaining school year calendar to make up the time missed. When the new General Assembly got underway last month, State Representatives John Carey (R-Wellston) and Casey Kozlowski (R-Ashtabula County) introduced House Bill 36, which would increase from three to five the number of calamity days school districts aren’t required to make up and give districts additional flexibility on how they made up days after those five.
The bill had its first hearing last week before the Ohio House education committee (it will have a second hearing this evening and a companion bill is being considered in the Senate), during which its sponsors testified that granting more snow days to schools is a matter of safety. Committee members agreed that students and school employees shouldn’t be traveling to school in unsafe conditions. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle made strong cases for requiring districts to make up time missed and no solid arguments in favor of the snow days were presented.
Rep. Ronald Gerberry (R-Youngstown), whose legislative district borders western Pennsylvania, pointed out that the weather patterns and road conditions on his side of the border are the same as those in nearby communities in the Keystone State, yet school kids in Pennsylvania make up every day of school that they miss.
Rep. Clayton Luckie (D-Dayton) commented that most Ohio students need more time in the classroom, not less, and questioned the academic impact of allowing more calamity days. “We’re already behind, why take away more class time?” he asked Reps. Carey and Kozlowski. Ironically, Wednesday’s committee discussion about the bill followed an update from State Superintendent Deb Delisle on efforts to raise the rigor of Ohio’s standards and model curricula in order for Ohio to become a national and international leader in academic performance. During that discussion the point was made that Ohio has a shorter school year than many other states and certainly most top-performing countries.
And several lawmakers inquired about the fiscal impact of snow days. After all, the state still pays districts for those days, and teachers and most staff still receive paychecks for them, even though they aren’t actually working. Reps. Carey and Kozlowski didn’t have an answer to the monetary cost of snow days, but rough estimates are easy to calculate.
Based on 2009 data (the most recent year for which numbers are available) of average teacher salaries and the number of teachers working in districts, one can calculate that the Columbus City Schools spends nearly $1 million in regular classroom teachers’ salaries and benefits alone for each day that school is closed and not made up later in the year.
The Little Miami School District outside Cincinnati is one of ten Ohio districts in “fiscal emergency” and its situation is so dire that district officials are seriously considering dissolving the district altogether. That district spends about $59,000 on teacher salaries per snow day. If the calamity day bill passes, the district will have spent more than $290,000 that it certainly doesn’t have to spare to pay teachers for days they haven’t taught.
Across the Ohio 8 urban districts, more than $18.5 million would be spent on just teacher salaries if the districts all used five snow days annually. And these numbers just reflect the cost of regular teachers – not principals, administrators, or other staff members who would be off work but paid for snow days.
Nevertheless, despite weak arguments in favor of the bill and while more important education matters are left untended, relieving districts’ snow-day pain has the apparent support of the governor and legislative leadership and seems headed for swift passage.
