Letter: Local schools need flexibility in making up lost snow days

Granted, this is a rare cold and snowy winter. But wouldn’t it be great to let administrators, teachers, and parents have flexibility in determining how to make up lost school days without compromising educational needs?

Base it on hours instead of the 180 mandatory days. This way we could make up lost hours by adding time at the beginning or end of each day. Or even better, give us the flexibility to forgo spring break or Presidents Day.

More important, we seem to be at the mercy of the bus schedule when a lot of children can still make it in. How is that fair? There is a better way to allow them to still learn while balancing the safety needs of others. Most days, delays seem better than all-out canceling. Perhaps just push the schedule back three hours and go to school longer. People will adjust.

These are small sacrifices with the bigger picture of getting out on time in June. Most parents with summer plans are going to pull those kids out anyway if school runs long in June, and the idea is adjust to make common-sense solutions during these times.

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 4:05 AM with the headline "Letter: Local schools need flexibility in making up lost snow days."