TCAPS Superintendent Talks District's 11 Inclement Weather Cancellations

John VanWagoner has a superstition about Tax Day, and it has nothing to do with the IRS.

As superintendent for Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS), VanWagoner has the responsibility of calling snow days for the district and then dealing with the intricacies of state law if/when those cancellations pile up beyond a certain number. In years like this, when the number of closures forces TCAPS to seek waivers from the Michigan Department of Education for missed instructional time, VanWagoner prefers to hold off on doing the paperwork until after April 15.

“I have called snow days on Tax Day twice,” VanWagoner told The Ticker earlier this week. “I've never called one after that. So, after Tax Day is when I normally start getting [the application for waivers] filled out and submitted.”

Turns out VanWagoner’s superstition was well-founded. On Wednesday, VanWagoner called the third Tax Day snow day of his career – albeit, one with no snow. “This closure is at the request of Grand Traverse County due to widespread flooding and road closures across the region,” TCAPS wrote in the Facebook post.

The “flood day” marks the 11th inclement weather closure for TCAPS this winter, tying the district record from the winter of 2018-19. TCAPS cancelled school once in December, five times in January, and four times in March. The March closures all occurred on consecutive school days in response to last month’s historic blizzard.

Those eleven cancellations mean it’s paperwork time for VanWagoner. Per the State School Aid Act of 1979, Michigan public school districts must provide “at least 1,098 hours and 180 days of pupil instruction” every year to avoid state funding penalties. State law automatically forgives up to six days for school cancellations, which gives districts some wiggle room for things like illness outbreaks, power outages, or inclement weather.

When six days isn’t sufficient, though, districts must seek waivers – or add days to the academic calendar – to make up the missed time. Otherwise, state law requires those districts to forfeit a fraction of their state funding based on the number of days missed.

“We get the six built-in days, and we can apply for three more,” VanWagoner explains of the waiver process. The superintendent is confident the state will waive at least those three days. As for the two extra – and any others that might occur between now and the end of the year – VanWagoner says there are conversations happening statewide about more lenient snow day forgiveness policies.

“Most years, when we’ve had these kinds of really rough winters across the whole state, we’ve seen the legislature forgive additional days,” VanWagoner says. “And at TCAPS, we’re actually in good shape compared to, say, the whole northeast side of the state. Areas like Gaylord, Johannesburg, Alpena, a lot of those districts I think are nearing 20 days. So, there are conversations about possible state laws [to forgive more snow days]. I don’t know if those districts are going to get all their days forgiven, but at TCAPS, we only need a couple more, so we’ll see where all of that lands.”

Earlier this week, State Representative Parker Fairburn (R-Harbor Springs) proposed a snow day forgiveness plan that would “forgive up to four additional snow days for schools that closed due to a mid-March winter storm.” Plans like Fairburn’s have met with success in recent years. Last June, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a similar bill proposed by State Representative Cam Cavitt (R-Cheboygan) allowing districts affected by March 2025 ice storms to waive additional days of missed instruction.

Cavitt is also pursuing a longer-ranged plan where “any county that suffers a declared natural disaster order would be exempt from any penalties related to missed school,” he told The Alpena News. Alpena County, along with Roscommon, Delta, Alcona, Missaukee, Ogemaw, and Wexford, received a state of emergency declaration from Whitmer last month. Whitmer declared another state of emergency on Wednesday, applying to Grand Traverse County and 31 other counties grappling with this week’s severe weather.

In the 2018-19 school year – the last time TCAPS hit this number of inclement weather closures – Whitmer signed a bill that forgave an additional four snow days “that occurred while the state was under a state of emergency due to extreme cold temperatures.” The latter legislation saved TCAPS from having to add extra days to the school year.

The last scheduled day of school for TCAPS is Wednesday, June 10.