Pasco School Board to discuss graduation, snow days Tuesday

It’s Pasco’s turn to talk about graduation, snow and make-up days.

The school board plans a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the district office, 1215 W. Lewis St., to hear from the community and staff about how to meet state laws after canceling school for eight days.

Gov. Jay Inslee’s recent declaration of emergency allows the district to ask the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to waive the requirement that students spend 180 days in class.

Districts must meet two conditions to get the waiver: students need to make up at least three days and classes can’t end until June 14.

Along with meeting the other requisites, the district needs an average of 1,027 hours of instruction time at each grade level.

Officials called the situation complex, and want input from everyone involved.

Richland and Kennewick are dealing with similar issues.

Richland’s Superintendent Rick Schulte is discussing how to meet the 1,027-hour requirement while also finishing by June 14. Students in the district missed seven days because of snow and ice.

“Our administrative team and union representatives will be exploring and analyzing all options in the coming weeks,” he said. “This is complicated and will take some time. We ask everyone to be patient as we work through the process.”

Kennewick is further along in the process. Following a Wednesday night meeting, the school board and teacher’s union agreed to cancel the remaining early release days and report card preparation days.

The board is going to examine the situation again in March to see if any of the early releases can be reinstated.

Kennewick’s teachers preferred the option of giving up preparation time to spending until June 21 in class, according survey results presented at the meeting.

The district is examining whether they can hold school during Presidents’ Day. Officials are meeting with the other unions affected by adding the extra day to the schedule.

All three districts are examining whether to move graduation day. Richland and Kennewick school board members talked about it, but so far have not changed the date of their ceremonies.

All of them face a similar issue. State law requires seniors to spend at least 175 days in class. If the districts don’t keep them in class until June 7, they risk losing a portion of their funding.

Schulte estimates that its about $150,000 for his district, and Bond said the district would lose about $45,000 per day.

All three districts planned graduations between June 1-3.

Bond said state officials are working with the districts on creative solutions. The state is looking for the students to be in school during the three days, but it is possible for them to spend time on similar things to what they would normally do. It could include assemblies, career days or other activities.

Pasco dealt with a similar issue last year when a strike delayed the beginning of school by nine days. The district delayed graduation by a week to make up the difference.

This story was originally published January 29, 2017 at 8:10 PM with the headline "Pasco School Board to discuss graduation, snow days Tuesday."