By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

Due to school being canceled for a week this month due to snow, the Worcester County Board of Education has waived first-semester final exams, eliminated two days from spring break and modified virtual day instruction plans.

At the board of education’s Jan. 21 meeting, the body voted to accept the superintendent’s recommendation to waive final exams for 2024-2025 semester one courses that do not culminate in state-required assessments. Before modification, the policy stipulates each student must take a comprehensive final exam in all grade nine through 12 subject areas.

“The Board believes that final examinations help to bring focus to the essential outcomes specified in the course of study and help to bring closure to a course and promote curricular articulation among the high schools,” the official guideline reads. “…Experiences with locally developed final examinations can better prepare students for successful achievement in end-of-course examinations required for graduation, higher education, and the world of work.”

The standard exempts these final exams if the end of the course includes a college, national, or state assessment. For this year, due to the five instructional days lost to inclement weather earlier this month, the policy will be waived not to require the comprehensive exams for semester one classes.

WCPS Chief Safety and Academic Office Annette Wallace said that during the time when the exams would be taking place, students will be completing “some type of final project, so they have to come,” just as if they were taking the originally scheduled tests.

The board of education unanimously passed the motion to accept this recommendation. Most schools had already informed their students of the plan before the official vote, but Wallace said she would communicate the official decision to principals, who will then pass the message on to teachers and students.

The school board also voted to eliminate two days at the end of this year’s spring break: Tuesday, April 22, and Wednesday, April 23. These days will be reintroduced to the school system calendar as classroom instruction days to make up for the two excess days lost to snow. Additionally, the last day of school will now be June 17.

Worcester County Public Schools was closed for five days earlier this month due to the area receiving about six inches of snowfall. The first three were used as inclement weather days that were built into the backend of the current year’s calendar. WCPS Coordinator of Public Relations Carrie Sterrs said the move left two days that needed to be made up to provide students with the 180 instruction day minimum. Taking away the end of the school system’s spring break will accommodate this requirement.

“We had an excess of two days that we still need to make up,” Sterrs said. “…We couldn’t utilize virtual instruction for those days, so the modification addresses that. If you look at April, we recommend taking back those two days at the tail end of spring break, April 22 and 23, and changing those into full days of instruction for students and staff.”

The board of education passed the calendar revision unanimously.

Sterrs also brought a virtual learning policy revision before the board. The recent school closures revealed challenges to the plan that was approved last spring, and as such, the system’s governing body unanimously agreed to accept the recommendation to not deploy devices for elementary and middle school students but to mandate that they use personal devices to access synchronous learning on virtual day instruction. At the same time, high school students will utilize the take-home devices that WCPS provides them.

Sterrs maintained that elementary and middle schoolers who do not have access to technology at home would not be penalized for not being able to log in on virtual learning days.

“It was already built into the plan that no student would be adversely impacted if they do not have access to connectivity or a device,” the public relations coordinator said. “They will have five days from our return to make up that work, which will also account for their attendance.”

Going forward, any inclement weather or otherwise unexpected WCPS closure day will utilize the updated virtual learning to avoid making up any more missed days. The very next day, Wednesday, after the board meeting became a virtual learning day due to two inches of snow falling and school being canceled.