| By Bob Weaver
Last year, with some fanfare, the West Virginia Legislature passed a law eliminating the arbitrary start and end dates for the public school year.
The change provided county school systems with more flexibility in the school calendar, so students would get 180 days of instruction.
The first year under the new law, just changing the start and end dates was not an answer, according to the WV Department of Education.
The WV Department of Education says only ten counties reached 180 instructional days. Forty-five counties had anywhere from 179 down to 172.
The state department does not count lack of instructional time with two-hour or early-out days, with some school systems racking up 20 or more such days.
The new rule has made progress from the 2009-2010 school year, when no county hit 180.
That year bad weather forced counties to miss an average of 15 days and pushed the statewide average for instructional days down to 170.
Calhoun Schools improved with 177 instructional days during the 2010-11 year, after having 13 days canceled.
Clay County, of regional counties, had the fewest days of instruction during 2010-11 with 174.
None of the regional counties had 180 days.
Having 180 instructional days is hampered by contracts given to system employees.
Bad weather is always a factor, but within the school calendar, you have breaks for Spring, Summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas and deer season.
In West Virginia, there seems to be a lot of reasons not to have days of instruction.
Meanwhile, it is reported that Calhoun Schools have greatly improved attendance.
The improvement is related to problems of parents and guardians who refuse to send their children to school.
The improvement has reportedly happened because of enforcement efforts between the school system and Calhoun Prosecutor Rocky Holmes.
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