Schools making up days from natural gas rupture
Feb. 10—Some school districts in the region are having to adjust their schedules because of the natural gas rupture that took place in November.
The rupture took place Nov. 8, the same day schools had been scheduled to be off for Veterans Day. Some schools canceled school because of the outage and are having to make up the difference to meet the required number of instructional hours.
The Clarkston School District will have to make up days from the natural gas rupture but will do so during the school year instead oft the end of summer. The midwinter break scheduled for Feb. 16 will be a half day of school and April 26, which is a day off for the Asotin County Fair, will also be a half day.
The district sent out a survey to staff and those two dates, along with the split days method, were preferred. The new calendar was approved by the board Jan. 22, according to Keri Myklebust, executive assistant to the superintendent.
Asotin High School Principal Brendan Johnson said the high school will have school April 26, which was also a scheduled day off for the fair. The middle and elementary schools in Asotin were already off the day of the outage for parent-teacher conferences, so they didn't miss any instructional ime.
But the day of school for the high schoolers will be a virtual learning day, so all instruction can be done through Google Classroom.
Asotin schools decided on the April 26 date after asking staff. The other options were to have an extra day of school during spring break or in the summer, but many families already had plans, Johnson said.
"That week of fair, either you're in the fair, a part of the fair or in school, so it made more sense to go that route," Johnson said.
Washington schools need to have 1,027 hours of schooling for all grades. The Clarkston district creates extra days in the school year in case of emergencies.
"Most often it's snow," Clarkston School District Superintendent Thaynan Knowlton said. "In this case it was used for the outage."
The Lewiston School District doesn't have to make up any days from the natural gas outage, because so far the district meets the required number of school hours, according to Superintendent Lance Hansen.
The number of required hours in Idaho varies by grade from 450 hours to more than 900 hours in high school, according to Idaho code. Other school districts in Idaho, including Moscow, Orofino and Whitepine School District in Deary, also didn't lose any instructional hours despite days off because of weather or the natural gas outage. Those districts already include extra days of instruction in the school calendar, so it's less likely a make-up will be needed in case of a closure.
Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.
