Five full days of school cancelled … five late starts, and it’s only Jan. 24.

Many North Kitsap School District officials have never seen school closures matching this winter’s magnitude. And in the aftermath of what has seemed like an assault on educational progression in the eyes of teachers and an extended winter vacation for school kids, both are now facing the task of making up all of that time.

“It’s tough because you can’t do anything about what Mother Nature does,” said Lynn Rasmussen, principal at Breidablik Elementary School. “There’s nothing you can do about it, so you just try to do the best with what you are handed.”

Located in “blackout country,” Rasmussen said Briedablik also endured five power outages during school hours in addition to the 10 other days that were affected by winter weather this school year.

“It really takes its toll on the bottom line, which is the kids,” she said.

And while Breidablik students won’t be given any extra instructional hours to make up for time lost during those power outages, the NKSD’s Time Task Force has planned a way for students to make up the five district-wide cancellations without adding more than one day to the end of the school year.

“We were trying to make the school year as productive as possible,” said Time Task Force chair and NKSD executive director of teaching and learning MaryLou Murphy.

The proposal, approved unanimously by the school board at its Jan. 11 meeting, aligns most student makeup time with half-days during the district’s remaining Learning Improvement Days — full days that teachers usually spend without students working on staff development and teacher collaborations.

Under the makeup proposal students will attend school in the morning on those days — Feb. 16, March 23, May 7, March 22 and June 20, thereby meeting the state’s minimal instructional hour requirements.

The proposal is pending further inclement weather and possible pursuit of relief for one of the five days through the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“I do not agree with this whatsoever, but I don’t know what else to do,” board director Catherine Ahl said before voting for the proposal Jan. 11. “I hope that the community knows that we don’t like this thing any better than anyone else.”

“There’s a lot of hardship for a lot of people to extend into the summer,” director Dan Delaney said. “It’s just a hard decision.”

Parents, in particular, have already endured a significant amount of frustration during the inclement weather closures as many have had to scramble, finding either the means of childcare or a way to stay home from work on the mornings closures were announced.

School board president Melanie Mohler said effective communication with those parents about the makeup schedule is critical.

The NKSD will soon be sending a letter to all parents detailing the schedule for the spring.

However, parents, students and administrators aren’t the only ones who have been adversely affected by the volatile winter. Teachers, who often make lesson plans weeks in advance, have also been hit hard by the closures.

“(Students) get out of their routine, they get out of their rhythm. It’s like coming back from a vacation every time,” Rasmussen said.

Now, with makeup days scheduled for the LID days, most teachers’ professional development time — which has been scheduled a year ahead of time for content-specific training during the LID mornings — will be moved to June 21, 22 and Aug. 9.

Luckily, Murphy said, staff will still have time in the afternoon for teacher collaboration and transition planning.

With an upcoming grade level transition that will change the NKSD from a K-6, 7-9, 10-12 grade level format to K-5, 6-8, 9-10 in addition to the opening of Kingston High School in September 2007, some teachers will be relocating and will need time to acclimate, Murphy said.