THE
FEBRUARY 14, 2014 INSIDE: CHESS TEAM VALENTINE’S DAY OLYMPIC SPORTS
SNOW DAZE
WINTER STORM NIKA CLOSES SCHOOLS, DUSTS THREE DAYS OFF SCHOOL YEAR
By Lavi Ben-Dor, Allison Kozeracki & Simran Singh Co-Editors-in-Chief & Managing Editor Contributing Reporters: Suproteem Sarkar, Yuge Xiao, Mary Mei, Paula Miller, Meagan O’Rourke & Jerry Zhu
Simran Singh/The SPOKE
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he worst winter storm in PECO’s history swept through the five-county area in the early-morning hours of Feb. 5 and shut down Tredyffrin-Easttown schools from Feb. 5-7—during a winter season that added four school days to the end of the year and cancelled the Presidents Day holiday. This year, T/E students will only attend school for 179 of the 180 days required by the state. At a special school board meeting on Feb. 10, the school board approved measures to maintain students’ original spring break after discussions with Harrisburg officials. By state law, school districts can seek exceptions to the 180 day school year requirement through what are known as Act 80 days, which include activities such as parent-teacher meetings, curriculum planning and teacher inservices, and count those days toward the 180 day requirement even if students are not present during those days. At the meeting, the school board ap-
proved the plan to not reschedule the days missed as a result of Nika and instead add three Act 80 inservices for teachers on April 14 and June 27 and 30, thus keeping the number of teacher days for the year at 191 while decreasing the number of student days to 179. In addition, since the original school calendar had two school days more than the required amount, up to two more snow days could take place afterward without needing to be made up. According to deputy director of emergency management for Chester County Robert Kagel, the timing of the storm and the amount of ice it brought contributed to the great number of school closings. “This season has been fairly average, with around 30-36 inches of snowfall. The problem with this snowfall was the ice,” Kagel said. “The impact on school districts was more drastic because of the timing.” Winter storm Nika left hundreds of thousands of homes without power, downed power lines all across the area and closed 600 roads in the region.
CONESTOGA HIGH SCHOOL
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Berwyn, PA
Courtesy Jonathan Yu
(Above) Berwyn Fire Company lieutenant Evan Brazunas and firefighter Josh Lichman set up cots inside Valley Forge Middle School. The middle school served as a local shelter last Wednesday night.
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