A recent bout of winter weather came too late for some area school districts to use their built-in snow days, meaning the school year will be extended into the summer.
Had snow forced schools to close earlier this year, school districts were prepared with snow days scheduled on their calendars. In those cases, students were instead given days off.
Here’s a list of the tentative calendars for Clark County’s largest school districts:
• Evergreen Public Schools had a built-in snow day on Friday, but because school hadn’t been canceled this year, students had the day off. School will run, therefore, until June 15 unless there are additional cancellations.
• Vancouver Public Schools had scheduled a makeup day on Jan. 29 that it didn’t use. School will therefore extend to June 18, the first of three additional makeup days the district has on its calendar.
• Battle Ground Public Schools had a makeup day on Feb. 16 that it didn’t use. However, the district has another makeup day on May 4. North schools were closed Feb. 14 and use that May date as a makeup day, and will make up Wednesday and Thursday’s closures at the end of the year, extending the school year to June 18. South schools will make up Wednesday’s snow day on May 4.
• Camas School District had its first snow day on Wednesday, and had a make-up day built into the calendar for March 16. With Thursday’s snow day, the district will have to extend the school year by one day, to June 20.
• Washougal School District had a snow day on Feb. 14, as well as Wednesday and Thursday. The district had two built-in days before the end of the year that will now serve as make-up days: March 16 and May 25. The district will also have to extend the school year by a day, to June 20, due to Thursday’s cancellation.
• Ridgefield School District canceled class on Wednesday due to snow, and just missed its built-in snow day of Feb. 16. Instead, the school year will end a day later, with June 15 serving as the district’s last day.
• La Center School District has had two snow days so far this year. The first will most likely be made up on March 30, and the second will most likely be made up April 21.
• Hockinson School District missed it’s make-up day built into the school calendar, so because of the district’s two snow days this year, the end of school has moved from June 20 to June 22.
• Woodland Public Schools had two cancellations due to snow this week, and will make up the days later in the school year. A school official could not be reached for comment.
Washington state law requires schools have 180 instruction days — late starts and early releases count as instruction days — and an average of 1,027 hours.
