The House Education committee convened at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 21 in 434-M to consider two pieces of legislation. One of these bills would change the effective start and end days for West Virginia K-12 public schools.
House Bill 2433 would mandate that schools in the state of West Virginia would start no earlier than Labor Day and end no later than Memorial Day. This bill would ensure uniformity with West Virginia start and end days, and guarantee the summer months off for students.
In order to make up snow days, the bill allows schools to either extend school day hours or offer a 5-day extension to the school year to compensate.
The Education committee overwhelmingly approved of the bill, but offered a number of amendments to House Bill 2433 to increase continuity and uniformity.
The Education Committee amended the bill to change the language regarding the bill’s effective date from 2020 to 2021.
Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, moved to amend the bill as well. He suggested that the committee strike the words “Labor Day” and “Memorial Day” and replace the language with “September 1st” and “May 30th” respectively.
“Labor Day can be anywhere from September 1st to September 7th, given the year,” Hornbuckle said. “Same with Memorial Day. This change ensures that we give the schools a uniform date.”
The amendment passed unanimously. Delegate John Kelly, R-Wood, the lead sponsor of the bill, commended the change.
Hornbuckle also offered a second amendment up, one that was born from his conversations with parents and educators across Cabell County. The proposed amendment would change the school day requirement from 180 to 170 days.
“I did a little bit of research, and found that the top ten performing schools are in session for 165-180 days,” Hornbuckle said. “Meanwhile, the states that perform below us are in session for 180 days across the board. This shows that there’s no correlation between how many days our public schools are in session, and how well they do.”
While many delegates agreed with the amendment, many were concerned with the amendment’s ability to invite a veto to an otherwise foolproof bill.
Caleb Hanna, R-Webster, spoke in favor of the amendment.
“I think the people of West Virginia are going to love this,” Hanna said. “If the Governor vetoes this, he’ll have to answer to the people. This is a great amendment, quality shows much more than quantity.”
The amendment by Delegate Hornbuckle was adopted by the committee.
After a little debate centered around the paternalistic nature of the bill, the House Education committee advanced the bill to the House floor as amended with recommendation that it should pass.
The House Education committee also had a consideration of an originating bill to add a provision to current code. This provision would allow county Boards of Education to go into executive session. This originating bill was tabled by the committee.
The House Education committee will meet later again today to have a consideration of Senate Bill 1.
