Snow brings no savings for school board

DURHAM -- This school year's snow days won't have any financial implications for the Durham public school board.

The 2007-2008 school year included three bus cancellation days for all of Durham Region and three more just for the area north of Hwy. 7 -- Brooklin, Brock, Uxbridge and Scugog -- says a staff report presented to the Durham District School Board's May 5 standing committee. Schools remained open in each case.

"There's no savings for us on a snow day," said Mark Joel, the board's superintendent of operations and transportation.

The bus operation contract is based on a fixed number of delivery days and payment still occurs during a cancellation. Staff is also expected to arrive at some point during the day and are paid if they do; they can apply for a sick day otherwise, Mr. Joel said.

Student enrolment grants are not affected by snow day attendance, he added.

Board chairman and Ajax Trustee Marilyn Crawford said she asked staff for the report because of the heavy snowfall this winter. Some school boards had so many snow days they had to come up with creative ways to make up for lost time, Trustee Crawford said.

Mr. Joel said extra work was not assigned during snow days and schools compressed the curriculum to make things work.

The cancellations had various effects on schools, school comments provided in the report show. The biggest impact was seen at north Durham schools.

Beaverton Public School is serviced by only one bus and business occurred as usual there. McCaskill's Mills had 20 to 25 per cent of students attend, but Thorah Central had none.

In Scugog, 25 per cent of its students attended Prince Albert; Epsom/Greenbank had a handful of students and Cartwright Central received 10 per cent.

Uxbridge Public School had 25 per cent attendance and Joseph Gould had 25 to 30 per cent. Less than 10 per cent of students showed up at Scott Central; teachers also had a difficult time getting there. In Goodwood, 10 per cent of the students showed up, but as the number of snow days increased, so did attendance.

Port Perry and Brock high schools had few students attend. Cartwright High School had no students and Uxbridge Secondary School had less than 10 per cent.

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