ELKINS — In an attempt to avoid students having to make up snow days during the month of June, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Shawn Dilly told the Randolph County Board of Education this week that he is working on an alternative.

Dilly announced to the BOE that he was attempting to get permission from the State Board of Education to move some dates around.

“One of the things we are doing with our snow days is that we have reached out to get permission from the state and we are still awaiting that permission,” Dilly said. “Basically we are trying to move our PL Days (Professional Learning Days) and our CD Days (Curriculum Development Days) to the end of the year so that the makeup days would not affect the end of the calendar.” 

Students have the day off during PL Days that are intended for educators to engage in activities designed to improve instruction, such as analyzing student data, participating in training, or collaborating on curriculum.

CD Days, meanwhile, are non-instructional days within the school calendar where students do not attend classes, but teachers and staff report to work. They are designed for educators to work on curriculum planning, development, and alignment with state standards.

Dilly offered a power-point presentation regarding what specific PL and CD Days he was attempting to get approved as make-up days. The snow make-up days in March would be on the 13th and 18th, while the make-up days in April would be on the 6th and 18th. The final three snow make-up days would be on May 11, and on June 2-3. 

“The last day for students would be June 4th if we are able to get permission to do that, which is a much more reasonable element of this,” Dilly said. “And then we would be doing some training, and close out the year. We think this would be ideal because a lot of staff have requested this time to be able to help with the relocation and all of the closures. So we are hopeful and we are just waiting on permission.”

The expected last day of school had been June 9, nearly a week later than the hoped-for June 4 ending.

Dilly said it’s his understanding that the state office has received many requests similar in nature from other districts.

“We are just waiting on their approvals,” Dilly said. “I’m hoping we can press them fairly soon because we need that information.”

BOE President Rachel Burns told Dilly, “This is somewhat a formality because some counties have already gotten that approval.”

Dilly replied, “Well, I don’t know if they have gotten that approval or not. They just went ahead and did it, I believe. We are trying to do things the right way here. But once we get that permission we will bring it for official approval from you all. I just wanted to let you know what we are trying to do and I’m hoping we will have it in the next few weeks.”

The next Randolph County Board of Education meeting will be held at the Central Office on March 3 at 5:30 p.m.