According to Superintendent Nicholas Wahl, the district will apply for waivers for the snow days from Jan. 7 to Jan. 10. Currently students would need to attend school for two additional days if the waivers are not passed.

“We’ve applied a waiver because state superintendent Ritz indicated she was going to be granting waivers, so we applied for waivers for all the days,” Wahl said. “We’re going to wait for the (Indiana) State Board of Education (SBOE) to respond to that, and from that response then we’ll make a determination on how we’re going to get the allotted days. If they are approved then those days won’t count against us. Our calendar is already 182 days. Worst-case scenario means we go two more days over because we (planned in) two days over (above the required minimum).”

Senior Sazuth Malpeddi said if the waivers were not approved, many graduating seniors would most likely not attend school on those days.

Malpeddi said, “If we go two more days over, that would be school after graduation. There’s really no point because, even if students do show up, they won’t get much done.”

Wahl said the number of snow days was warranted due to weather conditions.

Wahl said, “Obviously the beginning of the week the volume of snow and extreme cold, -15 degrees below freezing, led to snow days, which hampered city officials moving snow off the roads. Then the problem later in the week was that they were moving snow off the main roads but there were neighborhoods in really bad shape.”

Malpeddi said even if the state does not approve the waivers, the district was correct in issuing the snow days.

Malpeddi said, “It was impossible to go out anyways, and the roads were in bad shape. Hopefully (the state) recognizes that the snow days were needed and waives them.”