State: 75 Arkansas districts want snow-day waivers

By Associated Press - Tuesday, March 11, 2014

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Arkansas Board of Education will decide later this month whether to grant waivers to 75 school districts and charter schools seeking a reduction in the number of snow days that must be made up this school year.

Department spokeswoman Kimberly Friedman said Monday that the state board will consider the requests during its March 20-21 meeting. Schools must have class for 178 days each school year, but the state can waive that number on a case-by-case basis.

A district must miss more than 10 days to be eligible for a waiver. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (https://bit.ly/1i31ylA ) reported Tuesday that 14 districts requesting waivers have had 20 or more snow days this school year. The Mammoth Spring and Viola school districts, which are along the Missouri border in northern Arkansas, tied for missing the most number of days at 23. Both requested the state board to waive 13 snow days.

Mammoth Spring Superintendent David Turnbough said the area experienced one of the worst winters in decades. He said the district’s calendar already omits holidays that other districts celebrate and holds shorter Thanksgiving breaks than other schools. Turnbough said Mammoth Spring students will have class during spring break later this month.

“Our community relies heavily on the tourism industry related to the Spring River area,” Turnbough said. “Students and faculty members are involved in those summer jobs. We have always respected that and tried to end school before June 1.”

The West Fork School District said it will seek a waiver of three days but will otherwise make up 18 snow days, Superintendent John Karnes said. The district will give up spring break and add nine days to the end of the school year, making the last day of school June 6, Karnes said.

The last time the state board considered granting waivers because of bad weather days was in 2010 when seven districts submitted requests.