BY JAN MURPHY AND ELIZABETH GIBSON, The Patriot-News

School on Saturdays?

It seems sacrilegious or a form of discipline, but a proposal pending before the state Senate would make that an option.

A Senate bill would allow public schools to require students to attend Saturday classes to make up for cancellations because of severe weather conditions or an emergency such as a water-pipe leak,

The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday approved the legislation that seeks to strengthen the state’s minimum of 180 days of instruction by June 30 every year, even if it means Saturday classes. The state’s school code permits school on Saturdays only on the rarest of occasions, and snow makeup days are not among them.

The bill advances to the full Senate.

Nancy Olsson of Phoenixville, who was visiting the state Capitol on Tuesday as a chaperone with her fourth-grade daughter’s class, said she would not have a problem with this proposal.

“If you ask my daughter, she might have a different opinion of it,” she said. “But it probably wouldn’t amount to many Saturdays ... and they have to get the education in.”

Members of Cumberland Valley High School’s track team, during a break after school, were less enthusiastic about it.

Ninth-grader Sagar Shah said weekends are the only time he has to spend with his family because school, track practice and homework fill his weekdays.

Madi Bowman and Katie Schwalm, also in ninth grade at Cumberland Valley, said it would never work.

“People wouldn’t come. I think 178 days would be fine. It’s not a big deal,” Bowman said.

Big Spring High School junior Travis Gilbert, a student member of the State Board of Education, said going to school wouldn’t be high on his list for a Saturday, either, but he understands the need to get in 180 days of instruction.

“I think odds are slim for a school to actually do that. If they would, students wouldn’t like it. I’m not sure I would like getting up on a Saturday morning and going to school, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do,” Gilbert said. “To get that 180 days of school in is really essential. We have so much to learn and so much to prepare for, and we’ve got to remain competitive among these other countries.”

Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin County, who chairs the education committee, said the need to tighten up the so-called 180-day rule arose from the state Department of Education’s “apparent haste to approve exceptions” this winter because of snow-related school cancellations.

This year, 28 snow-related waivers were granted, with 26 of them from districts asking to waive the requirement for seniors only, department spokesman David DeKok said. Thirty-two others were denied or withdrawn. And 18 nonweather emergencies, such as water-line breaks, were granted as well. The waivers allow districts to shorten their school year without risk of losing state funding.

Piccola and Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-Chester County, the ranking Democrat on the education committee, were outraged over Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak’s granting of snow-related waivers this year.

The senators suggested those districts could have added days to the end of the school year, extended the length of school days or canceled scheduled days off or teacher in-service days to allow students to meet the state’s minimum requirements.

Waiving the school year minimum sends a mixed message to students, said Dinniman, the bill’s sponsor.

“We can’t tell them how important the curriculum is and [academic] standards are and studying is and then cancel school days simply because of snow and not make it up,” Dinniman said. “We all understand we have canceled days, but 180 days is the shortest school year of any advanced nation in the world and the least we can do is keep that minimum standard.”

The proposal allows the waiver to be granted when authorized by the General Assembly or when a district proves it cannot meet the requirement by June 30, even with Saturday classes. It limits the number of Saturdays that students have to attend to one a month.

It also maintains the requirement that graduating seniors cannot be required to return to school after graduating, and allows a student to be excused for religious observations.

Furthermore, it specifies that no tests could be administered on a Saturday.