Rapidly changing winter weather and power outages made for a short school week for Oxford students.
‘This is the weirdest winter weather pattern I’ve ever seen,? said Superintendent Dr. Bill Skilling, referring the ‘extremes? the area’s been experiencing lately in terms of temperature, precipitation and winds.
Students at Oxford Elementary and Daniel Axford Elementary had four consecutive days off last week, while the rest of the district enjoyed two days at home.
Classes were cancelled district-wide on Tuesday, Jan. 29 due to icy roads and Friday, Feb. 1 because of unsafe road conditions in the morning and the anticipation of 10-12 inches of snow falling throughout the day.
Fortunately, Oxford only received about 3 inches of the white stuff Friday despite all the doom-and-gloom predictions from local weather forecasters.
High winds were added to the winter weather smorgasbord Jan. 30 when gusts ranging from 45-55 miles per hour led to power outages in Oxford, the result of arcing wires and downed power lines.
Among those left without electricity were Oxford Elementary on Pontiac St. and Daniel Axford on Mechanic St.
No power also meant no heat and no telephones. As a result, classes were cancelled Wednesday and Thursday.
‘We were certainly surprised by it,? said Daniel Axford Principal Lydia Engel. ‘But what can you do ? it’s out of our hands.?
Power was restored to both schools shortly after 10:30 a.m. Thursday, but by then it was too late to conduct classes and the buildings needed time to heat up again, according to Skilling.
For those keeping score, Daniel Axford has the most unscheduled days off so far during the 2007-08 school year.
In addition to last week’s four days, the K-2 school was closed Dec. 17 ? along with the rest of the district ? following a 7-inch snowfall and Oct. 15 when water service to the building was shut off because of construction on Mechanic St.
‘I think we’re looking at some makeup time there,? Skilling said.
A school can miss up to 30 hours (or five days) a year without being required by the state to make up the lost time.
Exactly how Daniel Axford’s lost time will be made up is uncertain at this point.
‘The thing we want to try to avoid if at all possible is adding days to the end of the year,? Skilling said. ‘Parents might already have vacation plans set.?
One option is to use professional development (PD) days ? learning time set aside for educators to keep up-to-date with what’s going on in their profession.
‘The state allows us to use some of our professional development time with teachers to count toward student days,? Skilling said. ‘We have not historically done that, but many districts, if not most, typically do that.?
If Daniel Axford doesn’t miss any more days due to unforeseen circumstances, Skilling said it’s possible PD time could be used to make up the missing day without adding any actual classroom time for students.
Another option involves half-days at the end of the school year. ‘We could make them full days,? Skilling said.
Assistant Superintendent Nancy Kammer said a third option would be to ‘add several minutes to the day? at Daniel Axford.
‘We’ve got a few options,? she said. ‘What we really need to do at this point is sit down and meet with administration and union (personnel) to work out those options and figure out which one is the best one.?
Whatever option they choose has to take Oxford Elementary into consideration as well, Kammer noted.
So far, Oxford Elementary has accumulated a total of five days off, so it can’t miss anymore time without having to make it up somehow.
As for the rest of the district, which includes the high school, middle school and three other elementary schools, they’ve all had three days off, so they can afford to miss another two days if necessary.
One thing’s for sure ? there’s still plenty of winter left.