The state Senate passed legislation changing school calendar requirements from days or months to hours.
Senate Bill 890 would change the minimum public school 180 instructional day requirement into a minimum 900 instructional hour requirement. The bill would also convert other public school calendar provisions from days or months to hours.
In a Saturday morning session, senators passed the bill on a 23-5 vote. It now goes to the House of Delegates for consideration.
The lead sponsor, Senator Rollan Roberts, said the change could give school systems greater flexibility.
“We’ve been stuck in a pattern here in West Virginia, and this is a way to allow creativity and flexibility in areas where we have been very rigid in the past,” said Roberts, R-Raleigh.
“We have all of these snow days, for instance, this year where many school districts are going to be forced to go after their traditional school year more days. Those days are beyond the instructional time period so they’re just going to be days where nothing is going on with instruction, but we pretend like the 180 days is the best thing in all of the world. It is not.”
He said the bill would still allow counties to use the 180-day standard if they choose. “We’re not forcing anyone to do anything differently. Things can remain as they want, but now there is the ability to adjust the calendar.”
The change, under the Senate bill, would not take place until July 1, 2027.
Senate Education Chairwoman Amy Nichole Grady, R-Mason, agreed the change would provide more latitude. Grady is a fourth grade teacher.
“Across the nation we have different states that do different things. Some of them have daily requirements like we do now,” she said. “Some states have hours. And some states have both, honestly.
“This would allow more flexibility for our counties. We’re constantly talking to superintendents who say ‘give us more flexibility.’ This would allow that. It doesn’t say you have to change it. You could continue to do what you’re doing right now, but this would allow counties to change.”
Senator Mike Oliverio, R-Monogalia, voted against the bill and believes there’s a good chance the change would not be better for education.
“I am all for flexibility, and I am all for quality instruction. But I am not for this bill,” Oliverio said.
Oliverio did some math.
For high school students, he said, 345 minutes of instruction each day are required under current law.
Divided by the number of minutes in an hour, 60, that’s 5.75 hours a day — or, 5 hours and 45 minutes for a high school instruction day.
Over the current requirement of 180 days, that amounts to 1,035 hours of instruction.
The bill, in contrast, would be 900 hours of instruction.
That’s 135 fewer hours of instruction.
Based on the number of hours in the current instructional day, Oliverio calculated that to equate to 23 fewer days of learning.
“Has anybody come to you and said I’d like you to reduce the amount of time that our school children spend in school by 23 days? Has anybody asked you to do that?” Oliverio said. “While it provides flexibility for certain, I’m not sure it does anything to help with quality.”
Over four years of high school, that’s 92 fewer days.
Oliverio concluded, “This is not in the best interest of our students statewide or the families statewide.”
The Education West Virginia teachers union also has concerns about the legislation.
“I understand the intent of this bill is to be a cost saving option to give counties some flexibility, and is only permissive in nature. We have concerns that it could be problematic for employees regarding meeting retirement qualifications,” said Kristie Skidmore, the co-president.
She noted that Oliverio pointed out that issue when the legislation was discussed in committee and that an amendment attempted to address it. If the bill passes, Skidmore said, the Consolidated Public Retirement Board should work to ensure there is no effect on employees’ retirement.
“Childcare for educators and for working parents could be an issue as well,” Skidmore said.