No makeup dates yet for RC and Posen schools
by Peter Jakey–Managing Editor
Wednesday was just another northern Michigan morning. Plow trucks were moving snow from parking lots and roads before alarm clocks started waking county residents for another work/school day.
Rogers City and Posen students were able to sleep in again with another snow day.
The snow days have been anything but typical. Most of the cancellations have been because of ice this winter. Only one snowstorm caused a true “snow day,” and that was Dec. 21, before the Christmas break.
Wednesday’s storm brought slippery conditions, but blowing and drifting of snow caused the most problems. Again, there was not a ton of snow.
To the south, hundreds of schools were closed.
Too many snow days are becoming a problem for northern Michigan schools.
The state requires 1,098 hours of instruction time and 170 days, but offer 36 hours of forgiven time for Act of God days.
Posen and Rogers City are the rare school districts in the north with time left, and do not have to make up any time at this point.
“We are still above where we need to be at for the state in hours and days,” said Rogers City Area Schools superintendent Katy Makowski Tuesday. “ We have multiple hours left.” They had one day left before the latest batch of winter weather.
Posen also has multiple hours remaining. They were fortunate to be on their annual midwinter break in February when other districts were burning snow days.
“We are still under the threshold for making up time, and we are hoping the weather cooperates for the remainder of the year,” said Posen superintendent Dru Milliron.
Makowski said the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediat
If Rogers City had to make up one snow day, with school ending on a Friday this year, she believes it would be tough to get 75 percent of the student population in the classrooms for the day to count.
For now, “we are waiting to see what the state is going to do,” she said.
Before Wednesday’s snow day, Posen High School had 26.72 hours of pupil instruction canceled and six hours in delays/early releases. The elementary was at a projected 1,103 hours.
Onaway Area Community Schools has reached their 36-hour limit with still another full month of winter to go.