March snow and spring break

Heath Morrison and the school board are riding a wave of good feelings after last week's decision to save spring break.  But a March snow could shake things up again.  Morrison made it clear that any more closings will result in spring-break makeup days.

Some have asked why.  The state's minimum of 1,025 hours leaves plenty of wiggle room.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools started with 180 days and 1,080 instructional hours;  giving up two days leaves the district at 1,068,  according to the presentation to the board.

It's looking like spring, but ...

The answer? Morrison isn't willing to give up any more days of class, even if the law allows it.

"The extra hours in our academic calendar were put there to benefit students,"  Morrison said in his weekly report to employees.  "The winter storm in February was an extraordinary event and we felt a unique response was justified  –  but we won’t use any more of our additional instructional time for snow days this year. Academic achievement is always our first goal as a district and we don’t think using more hours for snow days is in the best interests of our students."

The hours-vs-days discussion has highlighted another confusing aspect of our state calendar law. (I've always been perplexed by why the state controls the calendar at all,  and if it's driven by the tourism industry,  why those folks consider it a benefit to crunch summer vacation into one uniform stretch.)  When state lawmakers bumped the required days up from 180 to 185,  there was a lot of talk about demanding more class time for kids.  Then,  faced with protests from school districts,  they added the hours as an alternative.  CMS,  like many districts,  stuck with a 180-day calendar.  I hadn't done the math before,  but since CMS seems to be using six hours as the instructional time  (schools are open for seven)  it looks like the district could actually cut back to 170 days under state law.  So ... more,  less,  whatever?

Meanwhile,  CMS' calendar planners start work on the 2015-16 schedule today.  They'll invite parents,  employees and other interested folks to join them for meetings from 4-6 p.m. March 17 and 24 in the cafeteria of Metro School, 405 S. Davidson St.

Can governor save the (makeup) day?

Plenty of teachers,  parents and other school employees are eagerly waiting to hear whether Gov. Pat McCrory can provide a waiver to help school districts avoid cutting into spring break or holding Saturday school to make up for last week's snow closings.

McCrory in emergency mode Friday

The question is how much ability he has to tinker with the state's school calendar law. The staff at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction was delving into that issue Friday.  The conclusion:  The latest version of the calendar law removed the ability of DPI or the state Board of Education to waive makeup days,  said spokeswoman Vanessa Jeter.

But can the governor do it?  "I do not know,"  Jeter said.

If that decision rests with the General Assembly,  the timing could be tough.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and other districts facing shortened spring breaks have those makeup days scheduled in April.  The legislature convenes May 14.

Update: State Rep. Ruth Samuelson, a Mecklenburg Republican, called after a Monday afternoon meeting with House Speaker Thom Tillis, where legislators discussed ways to "tweak" the plan to allow more flexibility.  She said the consensus was that most districts already have the leeway they need if they focus on meeting the minimum 1,025 hours of instruction,  rather than counting days.

The makeup-day hullabaloo illustrates how different discussions can be when an issue is immediate,  rather than abstract.  Invite people to spend time pondering all the limits and trade-offs that come with the state calendar law,  and most say "no thanks."  Put the plan that's approved by those who do care into effect,  and boy,  do people have better ideas.

Likewise,  no politician wants to call for reducing the time kids are required to spend in class  ...  unless the alternative is a makeup schedule that people hate.  Then the person who saves spring break may look like a hero.

After spending two snowy days reporting on the scheduling dilemma and reading lots of opinions on social media,  I had pretty much decided that scrapping a couple of makeup days  --  either through state waiver or tallying classroom hours instead of days  --  was the only option that wouldn't make anyone mad.  But I'm not sure that's true.  People like bus drivers and teacher assistants,  who tend to need their whole paycheck,  lose hours and money when schools close.  Eliminate the makeup days and you eliminate their chance to make up the wages.

There's just no such thing as a popular weather decision.

CMS snow-day tweets exercise the brain

Students playing around on their phones during snow days may actually be learning,  my colleague April Bethea says. While she was monitoring social media and keeping our online report fresh,  she got intrigued by #CMSsnowED tweets and filed this report:

Bethea

Charlotte-Mecklenburg students have been out of class for most of this week. But the district has tried to keep some lessons flowing - all in 140 characters or less.

For four hours each snow day, students have answered questions on subjects like chemistry, math and literature or shown off their haiku writing abilities through a Twitter Q&A the district has tagged #CMSsnowED.

At the top of the hour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. -- Note: today's will start at 11 a.m. -- , the district tweets a new question from its @CharMeckSchools account. The first person who tweets back the correct response gets a shout out from the district and a promise of CMS swag (a water bottle, umbrella or other district memorabilia).

"It's just a way to keep students engaged while schools are closed and to have fun with students online during the storm," said Tahira Stalberte, CMS' executive director for communications.

The virtual Q&A first launched in late January when CMS closed for two days because of snow. Stalberte said the idea came from the district's social media team, which uses Twitter and other tools to try to connect more with students or promote CMS initiatives.

The #CMSsnowED questions come from a variety of sources, including from district teachers, SAT study guides and other online resources, said Stalberte.

One of the first questions asked students to calculate the square root of the combined jersey numbers for a group of Carolina Panthers' players. And this week, students were asked, among other things, the following question about the novel Moby Dick:

LITERATURE: "Call me Ishmael" then call me a cab! Know the name of the boat I was on when it was destroyed by that albino whale, landlubber?

The question drew more than a dozen replies. (The correct answer is "Pequod.")

CMS is not the only district to communicate with students engaged during the snow break. Many districts used social media to help communicate news about school closings. Some, like Durham Public Schools and and Iredell-Statesville Schools, asked students to share photos of what they were doing during the snow day -- DPS called them "snowfies" -- and retweeted some of the replies.

Stalberte said the district has received a lot of positive feedback from students and parents about #CMSsnowED. She said the district plans to do the Q&A each day students are out of class because of the
weather.

"We have to meet students where they are," Stalberte said, "and they are on social media."

Ann here with one more item while we're on snow days and social media: A great school-closing announcement, made by the private Durham Academy, went viral Thursday.  On the chance you missed it, here it is. (I just realized this video displays on my computer but not my iPad, so if you're seeing a blank, here's the link.)

Snow days and PowerSchool: Let's talk

We all know the kids love a snow day,  but I suspect this winter of delays,  early dismissals and closings is putting a strain on the grown-ups.  I've been hearing that teachers,  assistants and others are struggling with how this affects their leave time,  and I'm sure working parents are in a continual quest for emergency child care.

I'm also interested in tracking down more information about the blizzard of problems related to the state's PowerSchool data system  (I know,  lame transition).  I keep hearing about things in bits and pieces,  and some of you have voiced frustration that I haven't pulled back to do a big-picture look at what problems remain and how we got into this mess.

Let me know your thoughts,  experiences and questions on either topic or both.  Anonymous comments can be helpful in shaping queries,  but I'd especially appreciate anyone willing to talk for a story.  Email me at ahelms@charlotteobserver.com or call 704-358-5033.  If you get voice mail, leave a message.  Once the flakes start falling,  I may go outside and play.