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School calendar bill being re-worked

CHARLESTON — An attempt to set a specific start and end date for school and decrease the number of days a student is in the classroom could be undergoing some changes before being presented to lawmakers.

House Bill 2433 would set the start and end dates for the school year at Sept. 1 and May 31 starting next school year. It would also reduce the number of school days in the calendar from 180 to 170. Teachers would remain on a 200-day calendar.

HB 2433 was pulled from the House of Delegates special calendar, where bills are taken up for consideration, and place on the house’s inactive calendar. The bill remains on second reading until placed back on the special calendar. According to house leadership, this was done to keep the special calendar moving.

HB 2433 — as originally proposed by Del. John Kelly, R-Wood — would have set the school calendar start day at Labor Day and end the calendar on Memorial Day.

“My original bill was to basically set the bookends,” Kelly said.

Amendments in the House Education Committee by Del. Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, changed the start and end dates to hard dates at the beginning of September and end of May. He also amended the bill to reduce the number of instructional days from 180 to 170.

“That was never part of my original bill,” Kelly said. “The amendments were made in committee to drop it.”

As of Monday evening, there were two floor amendments pending on HB 2433. The first amendment, introduced by Kelly, Hornbuckle, and House Education Committee Vice Chairman Mark Dean, R-Mingo, would change the number of school days back to 180.

“There was a lot of pushback on the reduction of days,” Kelly said.

While it keeps the start and end dates Sept. 1 and May 31, it provides additional provisions: it provides 15 days for make-up days for weather;, it gives teachers 20 non-instructional days for teacher; it provides time for professional development, record keeping, and community outreach; it provides for the county boards of education to hold at least two public hearings for input on the student calendar; and it would give county boards of education the authority to waive those requirements in certain circumstances.

Kelly said putting the number of instructional days back to 180 was fine.

“Quite frankly it doesn’t hurt my feelings one way or another,” Kelly said. “I’m more concerned about the structure of beginning and end dates. I think that’s necessary. It helps school boards plan better. I think it helps parents and teachers and students all the way around. It’s structured, and we need to teach these kids a little bit of structure.”

Another pending floor amendment from Del. Jeffrey Pack, R-Raleigh, would set the school year start date from Labor Day, but would leave the end date undefined.

The house meets at 9 a.m. this morning to keep passing house bills out in time for Crossover Day on Wednesday.

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