Make-up days announced
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on February 27, 2014 1:46 PM
Make-up days have been announced for the four snow days that the Wayne County public schools were closed earlier this month, relying on early dismissal days and teacher workdays to offset time lost.
District administrators with Wayne County Public Schools met this week to review school calendar legislation and options to develop a plan for making up the time.
According to N.C. General Statute 115C-84, district school calendars have a minimum of 185 days or 1,025 hours of instruction over the nine calendar months school is in session. To meet those requirements, three early release days will be extended to full-day status and two teacher workdays will become student days, said Ken Derksen, director of communication services for the school system.
The remaining two snow days from Feb. 11-14 will be forgiven, he added, since the district's school calendar will exceed the required 1,025 hours of instructional time.
The following is a breakdown of how schools will handle the make-up time.
Schools on the traditional calendar already extended Wednesday, which was formerly an early release day, to a full day, with two others now following suit, March 12 and May 14. Tuesday, June 10, originally a teacher workday, has been changed to a student day and will now become the last day of school for students.
Dillard Middle will observe the same three early release days becoming full days for students. But the last day for students there will now be Thursday, June 13.
At Wayne Early/Middle College High and Wayne School of Engineering will have two teacher workdays changed to student days, May 22 and 23. That Friday, May 23, will now be the students' last day.
This is the second time this school year that district administration had to make adjustments to the calendar due to inclement weather. Following school closures in January, two snow days were forgiven and two teacher workdays were changed to student days, March 24 and June 9 in the traditional schools, March 24 and June 12 for Dillard Middle and Feb. 20, and Feb. 20 and March 7 for WEMCH and Wayne School of Engineering.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven Taylor said the snow days created real challenges for the district, having to make up lost instructional time within the confines of the state and school calendar law.
"Our district had to develop a make-up day plan for students that also provided some flexibility if more inclement weather occurred," he said. "By adding instructional hours to school calendars and changing every usable teacher workday to a student day following this month's winter storms, our district has made every effort to maximize instructional time without requiring students to attend schools on Saturdays or taking away days from spring break, which could negatively impact family vacation plans."