Westlake Students Will Not Have to Make Up Snow Day in June

Students in Westlake will not have to add a day to the end of the school year after all.

Wednesday morning, Gov. John Kasich signed House Bill 36 which immediately increases the limit of calamity days for school districts from three to five. Calamity days are used in emergency situations like heavy snowstorms or broken water pipes.

Westlake schools went over the three-day limit in February when the district declared a snow day.

“We were going to have to add a day, but now we can go back to the original end date for the school year of June 8,” Keenan said.

The legislation also gives schools the option of making up calamity days by extending school days this year instead of adding days to the end of the year, according to a press release from Kasich’s office.

The state of Ohio reduced the number of calamity days from five to three this year. The district would have had to push the school year’s last day to June 9, but with the passage of House Bill 36, it will return to June 8.

“I have to be cautious because we’ve had school cancelled because of broken pipes and things like that, but we can have students plan for their last day as we scheduled for the end of the year,” Keenan said.

The district will send information about the change to parents soon.