The several snow days at Rock Creek have posed the question: how will this impact the remaining school days?
According to the Kansas State Department of Education website, “Any days missed after six days must be made up. Five days is the maximum amount allowed by laws”.
But this concept is a lot more complicated than it appears.
According to Kristi Timm, Assistant Superintendent at Rock Creek High School, there is a slight misconception about how time is tracked.
“Buildings report out their minutes [rather than “days”]. The high school operates with 390 minutes a day, and so when that time accumulates, we start calling days off because of weather,” Timm said.
In addition, other factors can contribute to missed school days rather than just weather, such as boiler issues, water leaks, and unplanned issues.
“There’s always time built into the school year to factor for those things, but once we start using those days and having to call it off, then we look at where we’re at with the number of minutes that students have been in school and attending,” Timm said.
When considering how to address the additional school days needed to make up for the canceled days, the district takes many different options into consideration first.
“One option would be to add minutes to the current school day,” Timm said.
However, this always proves to be a challenge as the year progresses since there is less time to make up the required minutes. Due to this problem, the district proposes a better solution for the current situation of the senior class.
“The best way to make up that time and make sure it’s accounted for is by adding almost a day and a half to the senior schedule right now,” Timm said.
Currently, the district plans to make that time up before the last official day of school that is noted on the calendar.
“And right now, the seniors are needing to make up some time, and are looking to come back until that Friday before graduation in order to get those minutes made up,” Timm said.
The seniors would need to come back after Wednesday, May 14, to make up that Thursday and a partial day on Friday before graduation.
It’s also important to note that seniors are impacted differently from the other classes of Rock Creek.
“Kindergarten through 11th grade are not needing that additional time yet. And that happens because seniors have different requirements than kindergarten through 11th grade,” Timm said.
Recently, principal Eric Koppes called a meeting with seniors to inform them of a schedule change. Senior students will be required to come to to school Thursday May 15, 2025 for a full day and half or a day on Friday May 16, 2025 to make up the time before graduation.
Timm also noted that it’s important to recognize that “the way schools count time might vary from school to school… whether they count days or minutes.”
This clears up the consistent comparisons schools make in regards to why some schools have more “days” off, while others don’t.
So while snow days may be unpredictable, we can rest assured that Rock Creek has a plan.
