Snow days will affect school year

Students in Clark County are in for a longer school year after this month’s flurry of snow days.

The three largest school districts — Evergreen Public Schools, Vancouver Public Schools and Battle Ground Public Schools — will all have to add extra days to the end of the school year after canceling classes for four days. Combined, the districts serve more than 63,000 students.

The three districts have not officially updated their calenders yet, but each will have to add extra days to restore the school year to the state-required 180 days.

Evergreen Public Schools adds all extra days to the end of the year, spokeswoman Gail Spolar said. That means school will extend into an extra week for Evergreen students, whose last day was supposed to be June 15. The last day of school won’t be finalized until early next year, however, allowing administrators to wait and see if there will be additional snow days required.

“We don’t want to keep reissuing a calendar,” Spolar said.

The school board will approve the final calendar, she said.

Vancouver Public Schools has a built-in snow day on Jan. 30 — which in a snow-free year would have been a term break, communication specialist Amanda Richter said. The district’s board of directors has also designated June 19, 20 and 21 as make-up days. If there are more snow days after Christmas, the directors will have to approve an extension.

Battle Ground Public Schools also has a built-in makeup day on May 5. District spokeswoman Rita Sanders said that would normally have been a day off for students and teachers. The district will add additional days to the end of the school year, which was slated to end Tuesday, June 20. That means additional snow days could shove the district into the following week, though she noted, like the other districts, that the calender has not been finalized.

The district administration, not the board, will ultimately approve the final calender, but has not just yet, Sanders said.

“We are working on that right now,” Sanders said.

According to the National Weather Service’s 90-day outlook, this winter has a greater probability to be colder than average, with above normal amounts of precipitation.