Area schools are negotiating with the Indiana Department of Education over how to address instructional days lost after the Aug. 11 derecho clobbered Northwest Indiana just as many districts were planning to start their school year.
Students in some of the hardest-hit communities could be going to school later in the year or losing scheduled vacation days after the DOE determined how many days they have to make up.
“It’s such a unique situation,” Valparaiso Community Schools Superintendent Brian Smith said.
“We’ve never started the school year off without being able to start school.”
Valparaiso was planning to start the school year Aug. 12, the day after the storm hit. The powerful derecho generated 100 mph winds that damaged homes, schools and businesses, and brought down trees and power lines.
The devastation in Northwest Indiana, with thousands of residents without power for weeks, isn’t the only tragedy to hit the state. In Central Indiana, extensive flooding has wreaked its own havoc.
Gov. Mike Braun, President Donald Trump and various local governments have declared states of emergency because of the severe weather.
Smith said the state has been responsive in getting back to local superintendents dealing with the unprecedented effects of the Aug. 11 derecho.
“Basically, we’ve been told that we have a couple of options,” Smith said.
One would be to physically make up days, getting teachers and students in the classroom.
Normally, e-learning days would be an option, but because school hadn’t yet started, students didn’t have their school-issued devices. And even if they did, they didn’t have the ability to power them up because of the devastation to the electrical grid.
“I know you’re not learning at the level” of a teacher and kids in the classroom together, Smith said. “I’ll go to my grave believing that.”
What might work in Valparaiso’s favor is that the school days are longer than the state minimum. Perhaps the state would allow those minutes to be strung together to make up for at least some of the missed school days.
Or maybe the district could assign work to be done during, say, spring break and turned in when they return. Families that travel during the vacation would have to take the devices with them, but at least the kids would still be learning, which is the point behind the state’s requirement of a minimum number of school days.
“It’s not trying to get them to physically go to school on a day when they’re on their break,” Smith said.
What the state agrees to accept will be different for each district, because each district will propose an initial strategy to begin negotiations with the state.
In Valparaiso, the start of school was delayed four days for all students except Northview Elementary School, which was still without power the day before classes began for other schools.
“I don’t have an announcement to say this is exactly what Valpo is going to do,” Smith said.
Nor can he guarantee there won’t be other days school will have to be called off. “We don’t even have winter yet,” he said. “We have no clue what we’re going to get this winter.”
Extending the school year into June isn’t a great option, either. By June, AP and standardized tests are already done. “Making a day up June 5 isn’t the same as making a day up Sept. 27.”
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Smith is guessing the state will urge districts to go back to adding makeup days to the school calendar each year.
Smith has been a superintendent for 18 years, although this is his first year in Valparaiso. He’s been through a lot: COVID-19, polar vortex with temperatures well below zero, 15 to 20 inches of snow and more. But never has he seen a storm like this one.
That night after the storm passed, Smith and his wife drove south to buy gas at a station that still had power. Never had he seen so many trees fallen, roofs blown off and other devastation.
“It was like a war zone,” he said. “Almost apocalyptic.”
At Portage Township Schools, Director of Communications Melissa Deavers said the district is uncertain yet what to expect from the state in terms of a waiver for missed days.
Superintendent Amanda Alaniz, like her colleagues, is setting up a virtual meeting with the Department of Education to come up with a solution. At the Portage Township School Board’s last meeting, she speculated that the state likely would waive two of the nine missed days but not the rest.
School City of Hobart students missed eight school days because of the power outages which meant it couldn’t make up missed days virtually.
Superintendent Peggy Buffington told parents and students Aug. 31 the district received a flexibility waiver because its regular school day provides instructional time beyond the state’s daily minimum, so it can be applied to its annual 180-day requirement.
“Our goal has been to develop a plan that meets Indiana’s instructional requirements, protects valuable learning time for our students, and minimizes additional disruption for our families,” she said.
She said Hobart has always used its extra minutes for professional development on late start Wednesdays. To be eligible for the flexibility waiver and to avoid making up days, late start Wednesdays will be eliminated for the remainder of the school year to meet the state’s required instructional time.
She said the district has enough additional minutes to make up 7.5 days, and a half-day has been added to the calendar on Jan. 15 to reach the eight days missed total.
In Lake Station, Superintendent Christine Pepa said students need to make up seven of the 10 days lost. She said the Indiana Department of Education offered options to reduce the makeup time, such as lengthening school days and eliminating some nonrequired assessments.
Many Lake Station residents spent nearly two weeks without power.
Last month, Gary Superintendent Yvonne Stokes initially thought students might have to make up five of the eight days missed, but that estimate hasn’t been finalized, a spokesman said Thursday.
Other districts still haven’t heard a determination from the DOE.
Duneland Superintendent Robert McDermott said Thursday he’s still waiting for a decision, while Lake Central Superintendent Sarah Castenada said the district submitted a plan to make up days, but the DOE wants each district to set up individual meetings before waivers are finalized and approved.
“We are supposed to have that meeting within the next two weeks. I’m hoping to get information out to our staff and families after that meeting,” she said.
Kim Peirick, Communications Director for the School Town of Munster, wrote in a Friday email that the district has submitted its application to the DOE and is “waiting to hear back.”
Last month, Courtney Bearsch, chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Education, said state law calls for students to spend 180 days in school but the DOE can approve a limited number of waiver days for schools that have been significantly impacted.
Doug Ross and Carole Carlson are freelance reporters for the Post-Tribune.