NORTH RIDGEVILLE, Ohio — The school year will be a little longer for North Ridgeville students. This week, the North Ridgeville City School District announced it will need to make up instructional time after it surpassed its calamity day limit.
Recent grad Gracie Canfield said she lamented graduating before the 2025-2026 school year, which offered up more days off than usual.
“My whole four years in high school, we had maybe five days off. We never had freshman year off, sophomore year, we never had anything. So they’re lucky in my [opinion],” she said.
For all that apparent luck, she said did not envy the current students who are now facing an extended school year.
“It would suck because it would mean less days I could go to work,” she said.
North Ridgeville families received a letter this week informing them that the last day for students would be May 22, rather than the originally scheduled May 21. For graduating seniors, commencement practice on May 18 will count as the final instructional day.
“We understand that calendar changes can impact family schedules, and we truly appreciate your flexibility and support as we navigate this unique school year together,” the letter said.
The extension comes after the district canceled school eight times during the year.
“When I was in school, you went to school. We didn’t have all those days,” said North Ridgeville parent Lisa Canfield.
A cold, snowy winter was the primary cause for the majority of this year’s calamity days. In February, the district let families know it had reached its limit for missed instructional hours and may need to make up those hours at the end of the year.
On April 7, classes were canceled for an eighth time due to a network outage.
District leaders told News 5 the outage posed safety risks and forced the closure.
RELATED: No internet, no school: Here's why North Ridgeville City Schools canceled classes Tuesday
“This is about our 8th day without students. So we’ll be looking at – how do we bring in our students to make sure they’re still getting the instruction they need to make sure they’re ready for the next grade level,” assistant superintendent David Pritt told News 5 on April 7.
No one from the district was available for an additional interview on Thursday, but a spokesperson provided the following statement:
“The North Ridgeville City School District has added an instructional day to the end of the 2025–2026 school year. As communicated to families in February, the district outlined that if additional calamity days were needed, a make-up day would be scheduled for Friday, May 22, with the potential to extend into the following week (May 26–29) if necessary.
Due to an additional calamity day resulting from the recent network outage, this plan has now been implemented. Families have been formally notified of the updated schedule.
We understand that adjustments to the school calendar can be inconvenient. However, these potential make-up days are built into the district calendar each year and are communicated in advance to help families plan accordingly.”
Other districts have taken different approaches to making up missed instructional hours.
Parent Ed Andrassy said Avon Local Schools added hours to several school days to make up for the lost time.
“It’s worked out where they haven’t had to use any extra days. So I guess in that aspect, yeah, it’s worked out pretty good for them,” he said.
The district said if additional cancellations are necessary in the final weeks of school, makeup instructional time could stretch into the week of May 26.
Some parents said one or two extra days weren’t a major issue, but they felt it was unnecessary to extend the year.
“What are they going to learn in those last five days when everything’s been scheduled already for them not to be there?” said Tim Campbell, whose daughter graduated last year.
The district said potential make-up days are built into the academic calendar in case they’re needed.
Catherine Ross is the Lorain County reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on X @CatherineRossTV, on Facebook CatherineRossTV or email her at Catherine.Ross@wews.com.
