Three-hour delays will be 'exception rather than the rule'

Option gives Monroe-Woodbury a safeguard against the unpredictability of the weather CENTRAL VALLEY — Monroe-Woodbury School District officials say last week’s announcement of a new three-hour delay option for the district’s seven schools is not something parents should expect to see called often in the event that school openings need to be held up because of bad morning weather. “The primary rationale is to minimize the loss of instructional time,” said Superintendent Edward Mehrhof. “It’s my intention to use only two-hour delays. Usually, at the end of a two-hour period, the roads are safe for buses to travel.” The three-hour delay openings are in addition to the current two-hour delay openings the district uses in the event of bad weather in the morning or unforeseen circumstances. School superintendents throughout the area have to make the determination in the early morning hours - sometimes as early as 3:30 a.m. - whether to delay the opening of or to close school. They consult with each other, Mehrhof said, in addition to their own district’s transportation crews, area town road crews and police while reviewing current and forecasted weather reports from several sources. Input from police, DPWs and bus staff Several Rockland County school districts began implementing three-hour delay options last year with successful results, according to Mehrhof. “There were positive responses from the administrators,” he added. “And I’m sure a big part in their decision making was not taking days away from their spring break.” Mehrhof said another factor most people don’t consider when superintendents consider a delayed opening is the ability for a district’s building and grounds crews to get the parking lots in all schools clear in time for staff and buses to arrive. At Monroe-Woodbury, there have been occasions, Mehrhof added, where staff has come in as early as 1 a.m. to begin clearing lots in order to make them safe for staff and student arrival. “We look at all the physical elements,” said Mehrhof. “What do the town crews, our staff, the police say? Are the roads clear? Are the lots ready? It’s safety. We want the roads to be safe to travel on.” Should a three-hour delay ever be called, Mehrorf knows some parents will grumble knowing one of the first things some kids will do when they get to school is have lunch. They wonder why students shouldn’t be directed to eat lunch prior to coming to school on a modified day. “For some of our kids, the only decent meal they get for the entire day is at school,” he said. “We don’t want to take that away.” There are no current plans to consider extending the school day by one hour on three-hour delay days, but Mehrhof did say officials will have some discussions about the potential feasibility of doing so. “There’s a lot to look at,” he said. “We have contractual obligations (with teachers). We know there are day care issues. And we have to look at the impact on bus schedules and how that affects after school academic activities, clubs and sports.” Automated calls to parents New York State law requires students to be in school for minimum of 180 days annually. A legal school day, Mehrhof said, is a day when students are in school for four hours or longer, allowing a given district to qualify for its daily state aid allotment. However, he cautioned, the state aid formula is extremely “convoluted and crazy.” For example, state aid is also calculated on the number of minutes a week students area in school as well as other complicated variables, Mehrhof added, and people should not assume sending students to school for only four hours. Last school year, Monroe-Woodbury exceeded its number of snow or weather-related cancellations, jeopardizing more than $150,000 in state aid. A number of other districts around the state faced the same problem, so they petitioned the state Legislature for relief. School officials expect state lawmakers to take the issue when they returned to Albany in January. Monroe-Woodbury’s 2011-2012 school calendar includes an allocation for five snow days, plus four superintendent conference days which count for a school district’s attendance count, according to Mehrhof. No snow days have been used yet with only one two hour delay called for the Monday morning after the pre-Halloween weekend blizzard due to morning road conditions. “It’s always safety first for the kids and our staff,” said Mehrhof. “We won’t put buses on the road if it’s not safe.” In the event the district has to postpone the opening of school, Mehrhof asked that parents give special attention to the automated call they receive or when reading the Web site to know if it the delay will be two or three hours. “We don’t want anyone to be caught off guard,” he said. “But this (a potential three-hour delay) will be the exception rather than the rule.”