ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605200045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
PRE-LABOR DAY opening was an option for Roanoke, but the School Board voted to keep the the schedule as it has been - with a couple of extra snow days.
Summer vacation for Roanoke children will be a week longer this year than that for their counterparts in Salem and Roanoke County.
Roanoke schools won't open until Sept. 3, the Tuesday after Labor Day, while Salem and county students will return to school on Aug. 26.
The Roanoke School Board voted this week to approve Superintendent Wayne Harris' recommendation that city schools open after Labor Day.
Roanoke County and Salem were granted a waiver from the state ban on pre-Labor Day opening because the county has missed so many days in recent years due to bad weather. Salem has not missed enough days to qualify for an early start, but it was granted a waiver because it has joint special education programs with the county.
Roanoke didn't qualify for an early start because it has missed fewer days. The city missed 12 days this winter, only one fewer than the county, but the state grants waivers based on the average number of missed days for several years.
The county has averaged missing nine days because of bad weather in five of the past 10 years. Localities are eligible for a waiver if they have averaged missing eight days.
The Roanoke School Board added two snow makeup days to next year's calendar by deciding that students will have to return to school on Jan. 2 after the winter break. Three other makeup days had already been included in the calendar.
Harris proposed that students not return to school until Jan. 6. New Year's Day falls on Wednesday. He recommended that schools remain closed on Thursday and Friday - Jan. 2 and 3 - and reopen the following Monday.
But some board members said they thought schools should be open on Thursday and Friday in the event the city misses several days. because of bad weather this winter.
Some school systems used "banked time" to make up part of the missed days, but Roanoke school officials prefer to make up all of them.
Banked time is accumulated instructional time beyond the state minimum requirement of 5 1/2 hours a day, or 990 hours a day.
The tourism lobby has persuaded the General Assembly to prohibit the pre-Labor Day opening of schools except in those localities that qualify for a waiver because of bad weather.
LENGTH: Short : 50 linesby CNB