The Hampshire County Board of Education will hold two (2) public hearings regarding the 2014-2015 school calendar. The first hearing will be held April 7th at 5:00 p.m. at Capon Bridge Elementary and the second hearing will be held Tuesday, April 14th at 6:00 p.m. at the Hampshire County Board of Education located at 111 School Street, Romney.
Denise Hott, Finance Director, will conduct a PowerPoint presentation regarding the proposed school calendar. After the presentation, a question and answer session will be held. Anyone wishing to sign up to speak may do so before the meeting begins. A three minute time limit will be set.
Questions may also be submitted to Mrs. Hott in advance at dhott@access.k12.wv.us so that these issues can be addressed in the presentation.
You may read the summary of calendar changes mandated by the new law and review a proposed 2014-15 calendar below:
New Rules for School Calendars beginning 2014-2015 - A Brief Summary
(Look at the bottom of the article for a link to the proposed calendar for next year in Hampshire County.)
Legislative Revisions
The WV Legislature made substantial changes to the school calendar statutes (WVC §§18-5-45, 18-5A-5, and 18A-5-2) during the 2013 legislative session through the passage of SB 359 to provide county boards more flexibility in developing a school calendar that meets their individual needs, while at the same time requiring all county boards to actually provide 180 separate days of instruction.
Major Changes
* Public Hearings - MUST hold at least 2 public hearings each year before adopting a school calendar for the upcoming year
* Instructional Term - MUST provide 180 separate days of instructions
* Recovery of Lost Instructional Time - MUST develop a local policy that requires the recovery of all instructional time lost due to late arrivals and early dismissals
* Outside of School Environment (OS) Days - MUST schedule 4 of the 6 OS days after the 130th instructional day
Making Up Lost Instructional Time
WVC §18-5-45 specifies that if a county board cannot complete 180 days of instruction with the current school calendar, the county board MUST schedule instruction on any available non-instructional day (other than the 7 holidays or Election day) OR use an out-of-calendar day (except for Saturdays or Sundays).
Canceled Instructional Days
If a county board does not have sufficient non-instructional days to make up all cancelled instructional days, the board MUST reschedule the canceled instructional days using out-of-calendar days.
Recovery of Lost Instructional Time
County board MUST adopt a policy that requires additional minutes of instruction to be added to each instructional day, or that entire additional instructional days to be added, to recover time lost due to late arrivals and early dismissals caused by inclement weather, the closing of schools as a result of the prevalence of contagious disease, conditions of weather or any other calamitous cause over which the board has no control.
If all schools have accumulated sufficient accrued instructional time through their regular schedules to make-up the missed time, county boards won't have to specifically add additional minutes to the school day.
Please examine the proposed sample calendar (linked below) developed by the Calendar Committee and submit comments to Superintendent Marianna Leone at Hampshire County Schools, 111 School St., Romney, WV 26757,