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February 28: Make Up Day for Snow Days

Dear Hudsonville Families,

 Wow…what a winter we are having!  The incredible amount of snow and the extreme cold temperatures have placed a significant burden on many of our families.  Please know that school officials are out on the roads by 4:30 a.m. assessing the conditions and making a determination with students’ safety at the forefront of our decision.

 As of January 29, 2014, Hudsonville Public Schools has exhausted seven (7) days due to inclement weather.  According to the Michigan Department of Education’s Pupil Accounting Manual, Section 2.B.3:

 “The first six (6) days (or equivalent hours) of scheduled pupil instruction that is not provided because of conditions not within the control of school authorities such as severe storms, fires, health conditions, and infrastructure issues, shall be counted toward the required 1,098 hours of pupil instruction.”

 We want to communicate our district’s plan on how we are going to address making up the instructional time needed to meet state requirements and needed student instruction.  On our calendar, we have a staff records/professional development day scheduled for February 28th.  While we recognize the importance of this day, we now have extenuating circumstances that require us to make proactive adjustments to the calendar. Thus, February 28 will now be a student instructional day.  Please know we considered many calendar adjustments including mid-winter break and spring break, however, we believe the February 28th date seemed least disruptive to our families by providing advanced notification.  By adding this day, we will be in compliance with current statute.

  It is challenging to predict what the weather conditions will be in the remaining months of winter.  It is possible that we may have additional inclement weather days.  Two years ago, the Governor signed legislation that waived the minimum day requirement allowing schools to add minutes of instruction to accomplish the needed 1,098 hours of instruction.  Some speculate that with the winter we are having, this may happen again.

 If we should encounter the need for additional inclement weather days, we may begin to add minutes to the instructional day or further adjust our calendar.  We will continue to keep you posted and will notify you should this be a needed course of action.

 Respectfully,

 Nick Ceglarek, Superintendent

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