PERRYSBURG — The recent bout of frigid weather has forced Perrysburg Schools to extend kindergarten and
has pushed the calendar to the brink of added days for the rest of students.
“We’re up at 4:30 in the morning checking the roads. At the end of the day, we want to make the best
decision for the kids. We live in the north. It snows and we’re going to have to deal with that,” said
Superintendent Thomas Hosler.
Half-day kindergarten will see each day extended by five minutes, beginning Feb. 19. Morning kindergarten
will be extended to 11:50 a.m. and afternoon kindergarten will start at 12:50 p.m. The board of
education heard plans at Tuesday’s meeting.
Starting in 2014 the Ohio General Assembly changed from a minimum number of school days to a minimum
number of hours.
The state minimum number of scheduled hours for half-day kindergarten is 455. Perrysburg schedules 464.58
hours. The number of calamity days, combined with delays, puts kindergarten at a deficit of 4.77 hours.

Hosler noted the change in a letter that was sent Tuesday evening to all half-day kindergarten families.

The same letter also reiterated the potential for make-up days. Additionally, all Perrysburg Schools’
families and employees received a letter outlining the potential for a modified calendar.
All the other grades also have minimum instructional hours, with all-day kindergarten through fourth
grade requiring 910 hours, but 1,137.5 scheduled; and grades 5-6 requiring 910 hours and scheduled for
1,224.84. Grades 7-12 require 1,001 hours and are scheduled for 1231.76 hours.
There have already been five days of school cancelled and if schools are cancelled for a sixth day then
Feb. 18, which is Presidents Day, will become a student instructional day. That requirement is part of
the collective bargaining agreement made in 2014.
The letter notes considerations when determining school closings and delays.
“When evaluating driving conditions, we consider how safely cars and buses can stop on roads, visibility
(fog), conditions of sidewalks and roads for student walkers, weather forecasts for the next eight
hours, wind and drifting, temperature and wind chill, how the buses are functioning in sub-zero weather
and the progress of city and township road crews. Also, consideration of literally hundreds of teenage
drivers navigating roads weighs heavily on the decision-making process. These decisions are about
student safety.”
At the Tuesday board meeting, Hosler addressed some parents’ concerns about using Presidents Day for
teaching, when families may have had a vacation scheduled. He said that the possibility has been noted
on the Perrysburg School calendar page of the school system website:
www.perrysburgschools.net/Calendars.aspx, under the 2018-19 Official District Calendar.