Seattle wants to skip out on school

UPDATE 4/5 The Seattle School board will not request a waiver for the two school days. The vote was 7 to 0. Those days will be tacked on to the end of the school year in June.

Given a choice, there are some students who would ditch school. The Seattle School district wants to skip out on a couple of instruction days too.

The board votes tonight on a request to waive two days students missed because of snow and ice earlier this year. Remember January?

The state requires a 180 day school calendar for schools, though it’s more like 166 full school days in Seattle considering the late starts, early outs because of teacher training days. Students are supposed to receive an annual average of 1,000 hours of instruction.

Seattle, and other districts, will ask the state to forget about the missed school days on January 18, 19 and 20. Seattle has already made up one of its missed days, and the day when school started late and kids got out early doesn’t have to be made up.

If the state does not grant a waiver, Seattle estimates it’ll cost them almost $500,000 if it has to make up the two days. The school days would be tacked on to the end of the year. The district figures they’d spend about $58,952 on substitute teachers, $322,013 on transportation, plus $105,310 on utilities.

A Metro bus drives under a canopy of snow-covered trees in Pioneer Square on Jan. 18, 2012.

Not in school, some students (and kids at heart) found their way to Queen Anne Avenue. Yay! AP/Elaine Thompson photos

By LINDA THOMAS