Thursday's Internet Edition, September 02, 2010.

Teachers will report Monday to prepare for the first day of class on Friday, Aug. 20.

The first day of school a year ago was Aug. 26.

The earlier start is the result of school calendar changes approved by the state legislature following an unusually severe winter.

Students in Roane County missed 14 days to weather last year, not counting early dismissals or two-hour delays. Fewer than half of those days could be made up because the school year could not be extended more than a few days.

“We made up about four,” Superintendent Steve Goffreda said.

Goffreda said the calendar changes made by the legislature offer a little more flexibility, but fall short of solving the problem. Counties can start the school year earlier, but the year must still be completed in a 43-week period.

“It made it look like they solved the problem, but they really didn’t” Goffreda said.

In past years, schools could not begin classes before Aug. 26.

Schools now can start at any time, but teachers are still locked into a 43-week, 200-day calendar.

Only Wirt County opted to start more than a week earlier this year. Wirt teachers returned to work Wednesday, Aug. 11 with students reporting Monday, Aug. 16. The first semester of classes will end just before Christmas break, and the last day for students is set for May 19.

The last day for Roane County students is set for Friday, May 27, but if days are cancelled for weather, the school year could be extended to as late as June 8.

Goffreda said there is a little more breathing room in the calendar this year. As a result, students will be off Thursday and Friday, Oct. 14-15, during the W.Va. Black Walnut Festival.

Thursday, Oct. 14, is a workday for teachers, also known as Instructional Support and Enhancement, or ISE, day. Other ISE days are set for Dec. 23, just before Christmas break, Feb. 21, April 13 and June 1. A continuing education day – another day when teachers, but not students, are required to report – is set for March 18.

Goffreda said because of the 43-week restriction, starting school even earlier would not have helped solve the problem.

“You would just have to end the school year earlier,” he said. “If they don’t change the 43-week restriction, we will always have that problem, unless they decide to move winter.”