Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Rep. Mike Cherry to file bill to waive days

This is a good move, in my opinion, by Rep. Mike Cherry. He's filing a bill to waive up to ten make-up days due to the natural disasters Kentucky has seen this year. Nobody wants to go to classes in June, much less after Memorial Day weekend.
House Democrats said today that they plan to push a bill to waive up to 10 missed school days in districts affected by the ice storm and Hurricane Ike last fall.

Rep. Mike Cherry, D-Princeton, said he plans to file a bill tomorrow that would apply only to this school year and only to areas in which a disaster was officially declared.

The bill, however, would give the Department of Education the discretion to apply the waiver to districts in areas where disaster declarations were not granted.

“We don’t want to push the school year abnormally forward into June,” he said.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said he supports giving schools some relief.

The Jefferson County public schools resumed classes today after being closed for five days. Students have missed 10 days since the September storm and made up only one.

State law requires 177 six-hour days of class each academic year. Under state policy, districts that miss fewer than 20 days must make them up or add time to each school day.[...]

If the bill doesn’t pass, the last day of school in Jefferson County would be June 3.

Rep. Ron Crimm, R-Louisville, said he also plans to file a bill tomorrow to waive the missed days.
This bill will likely pass because several people plan vacations ahead of time. I'm sure teachers even plan to get married over Memorial Day weekend.

No comments: