Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408290053
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Children who live on the west side of Green Ridge Road in Roanoke County will go back to school Monday.
Across the street in Roanoke, children won't begin school until Sept. 7 - or nine days after their friends have returned to classes.
As in Roanoke County, schools in Salem and Botetourt County will open Monday.
But schools in Bedford County, as well as Franklin County, won't open until after Labor Day.
Many parents and students are calling the school offices in the Roanoke Valley because they are confused about opening day.
The situation is equally confusing in the New River Valley. Schools in Radford, Montgomery and Pulaski counties will open Monday, but children in Giles County won't go back to school until after Labor Day.
Why so much confusion? Didn't the General Assembly kill efforts to lift the ban on pre-Labor Day opening for schools?
Well, not entirely.
Under heavy pressure from the tourism industry, the legislature did reject the move to allow all schools to open before Labor Day.
Tourism lobbyists persuaded the General Assembly that a pre-Labor Day opening would hurt vacation travel in the state and cause problems for tourist attractions that hire students for summer work.
But some school divisions argue that they should be allowed to open before Labor Day because they are closed by bad weather so many days during the winter that they don't adjourn until the middle of June.
The crazy-quilt pattern of openings this year in Virginia stems in part from the state Board of Education's decision to allow school divisions to open before Labor Day this year if they met two conditions..
A school system can open early if it was closed at least 10 days because of bad weather during the 1993-94 school year and if it agreed to close Sept. 6 and 7 for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.
Under state law, the board has the authority to grant a waiver to allow school divisions to open before Labor Day for "good cause." But the law does not define good cause, said James Jones, president of the board.
Jones said a majority of the board members felt that the large number of school closings because of bad weather, coupled with the request to close two days for Rosh Hashana, constituted good cause to permit school divisions to open before Labor Day.
In the meantime, he said, the board has a committee studying the issue of whether the guidelines for an early opening date should be changed.
Jones believes that school divisions should be free to open whenever they choose without having to get the state's approval.
The bad-weather guideline ruled out a pre-Labor Day opening for many school divisions in the central and eastern part of the state, where major tourist attractions are located. Some missed fewer than 10 days during the past year.
Roanoke schools cannot open early, either, because they missed fewer than 10 days.
But many school divisions, mostly in the western part of the state, have taken advantage of the state board's decision and will open Monday. A few counties outside Western Virginia also have opted for the early opening date.
Thirty-five of the state's 134 school divisions were eligible to open before Labor Day.
Since 1983, the state board has had a policy of allowing school divisions to open before Labor Day if they missed an average of 10 or more days for bad weather during five of the past 10 years.
Under this policy, 19 school divisions, mostly in far Southwest Virginia, are eligible to open before Labor Day this year because they have met the 10-day requirement and been granted a waiver previously. They have been opening early despite the ban on a pre-Labor Day opening in the rest of the state.
Sixteen more school divisions qualified for the early opening this year because they missed more than 10 days this past year and they agreed to close Sept. 6 and 7 for the Jewish new year.
Several school divisions in Western Virginia could have opened before Labor Day, but they chose not to seek a waiver. These include Bedford County, Franklin County and Giles County.
"I looked at it, but there didn't seem to be any real advantage to it," said John Kent, school superintendent in Bedford County. "We've got snow days built into our school calendar, and I didn't see any real reason to start early."
Some school divisions that will open Monday are not happy, particularly with the requirement that they close for two days for Rosh Hashana, in addition to Labor Day.
This means that, after the first week of school, students will be off for a weekend and three more days before returning to classes.
Some educators said this could disrupt the learning process and cause a high absentee rate during the second week of school, when students will be off three days.
In Roanoke County, the School Board approved the early opening on a 3-2 vote with Chairman Frank Thomas casting the decisive ballot.
If the county failed to take advantage of the opportunity to open before Labor Day this year, Thomas said, it would be hard-pressed to persuade the General Assembly to change state law to permit all schools to open before Labor Day.
Jerry Canada, vice chairman of the School Board, opposed the early opening. He said the first two weeks of school will be so disjointed that it will be almost like three opening days.
The mandate to close two days for the Jewish new year has caused some Jews in the New River Valley to question whether the state board had overreacted to the request.
Some American Jews observe only the first day of Rosh Hashana. Schools have not closed for Jewish holidays in the past.
By moving up the opening date for schools to Monday, school divisions avoided the conflict between the first day of Rosh Hashana and the first day of school.
Simply allowing schools to open before Labor Day would have solved it, said some Jews. The Jewish children could have been excused for Rosh Hashana and they would not have missed the opening day.
But Jones said the state board's decision on Rosh Hashana was triggered by the General Assembly's request that schools be closed for the religious holiday.
He said the legislature approved a resolution asking local school divisions to close schools for both days.
Roanoke and Bedford County will be closed Sept. 6, the first day of Rosh Hashana, but not the second day. Franklin County and Giles County will open school Sept. 6 and not observe either day for the holiday.
Unlike in Virginia, tourism doesn't seem to play a role in school opening dates in the Carolinas, Maryland and New Jersey, where beaches draw crowds all summer long. In those states, local school systems are free to choose their opening dates; some start classes in mid-August.
"There has never been any complaints by the tourist business here," said Jim Foster, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Education.
"It has not been an issue here," said Kay Williams of the North Carolina Department of Education.
by CNB