Superintendent, School Board share plans for Hurricane Matthew make-up days

Plans to make up lost instructional days during Hurricane Matthew and the recovery efforts that followed were announced at the School Board meeting on October 24. HCS students missed seven instructional days in first semester due to the storm, with the exception of students in the Green Sea Floyds area who lost eight days due to prolonged electrical outages. 

State law signed by Governor Haley in May 2015 requires that school districts make up the first three lost instructional days due to inclement weather and that the district shall make all reasonable efforts to make the days up during the semester in which they were lost when operating on a four-by-four schedule for high school courses. After the first three days are made up, the local School Board may grant a waiver for the fourth, fifth and sixth missed instructional days. While the Board can’t officially vote until then, they announced that it was their intention to do so. After the School Board takes action to waive the fourth, fifth and sixth days, the administration will ask that the School Board seek a waiver from the State Board of Education for the remaining days: a seventh day for all schools; and an additional eighth day for students living in the Green Sea Floyds area.

After seeking input from principals who felt strongly that the required make-up days be restored to first semester, Superintendent Rick Maxey presented the following plan to the School Board for making up the first three days:

• November 23 is now a full instructional day. This is the day before Thanksgiving and was earlier listed as a staff and student holiday.
• January 2 is now a full instructional day and was previously indicated as a student holiday on the school calendar.
• Previously listed as a student holiday, January 13 will now be an instructional day, yet will have a two and one-half hour early dismissal to enable teachers to transition between first and semesters. (January 12th, which was originally a 2.5 hour early dismissal will now be a full instructional day)

Although they may prove to be unnecessary, two designated possible make-up days remain on the student calendar for the spring semester.