WEST UNION, W.Va. (WBOY) — Recent snowfall has caused numerous school closures throughout north central West Virginia over the past few weeks, which has begun to force some school districts to cut into some of their state-allotted snow days and could eventually lead to a longer school year in some counties.

Doddridge County Superintendent Scott Cochran said that the weather has been a bit of a challenge, but that the county has plans in place to navigate that the best way that it can.

He explained that Doddridge County Schools has five equivalency time days built into its calendar, which Cochran said is because all schools in the county go at least 30 minutes longer than the required state minimum for each programmatic level. However, with the recent winter weather, the county has used all of these days up for the current year and must now begin non-traditional learning days, which it held on Thursday.

The school district has access to a state-approved non-traditional instructional plan, providing an additional five days of flexibility in case of inclement weather. If the district ends up using all five of those days, Cochran said that the county will have to begin converting out-of-calendar days and outside-school days into instructional days.

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“There’s a method to the madness, which sometimes it doesn’t seem like the decisions that we make, but there is,” Cochran said. “At the end of the day, the decisions are for the safety of our students and our staff, number one.”

According to Cochran, the Doddridge County Board of Education relies on information from the National Weather Service (NWS) in Charleston, which provides school districts across the state with weather briefings about a day leading up to an expected weather event. He added that these reports include projected accumulation amounts, projected temperatures and patterns that a storm may travel.

Cochran added that the local Division of Highways district (District 4) does of great job of providing Doddridge County Schools with information surrounding upcoming weather events. He said that the district’s maintenance and facilities departments do a wonderful job of going above and beyond to prepare for upcoming weather, based on the information that they receive.

“A lot of people don’t understand the work and hours that goes into getting our facilities ready to reopen after a weather event,” said Cochran. “So our departments here do a great job of getting our facilities ready for that.”

Any decisions that the Doddridge County Board of Education makes regarding cancellations or delays are directly based on projected forecasts and current road condition reports. Cochran added that the final determination ultimately depends on what’s in the best interest of the students, parents and staff in order to make sure that everybody is safe.

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