MARSHALL COUNTY – Despite having missed more than a week of school due to recent winter weather, the last day for Marshall County students will still be May 22 according to Marshall County Director of Pupil Personnel Ledonia Williamson.
Williamson reports that pre-planning for the school year included several days that can be used to make up those missed by students last week following near record snow fall and sub-zero temperatures.
She explains that students in the state of Kentucky are required to attend 170 days of school totaling 1,062 hours.
Williamson said she often hears comments from the public indicating days off can be “forgiven” particularly in cases where a state of emergency has been declared. “I just want to try to educate people so they understand that nothing is forgiven,” adding that because additional days are built into the school calendar, students will be able to make up the missed days and hours without having to add any extra days to the end of the year, but no exceptions are being made at the state level.
According to 702 KAR 1:40, school districts must plan for the make-up of instructional time missed due to emergency. In addition to the minimum 1,062 hour student instructional year, the school calendar must include days equal to the greatest number of days missed system-wide in the local school district over the preceding five school years.
Additionally, state regulation only allows emergency waivers for schools who have missed more than 20 regular student attendance days district-wide. The district must also demonstrate that an “extreme hardship” would result if the district is not granted an emergency day waiver.
“The statute was changed and it is really very simple now,” Williamson said. “We always build in 173 days of school for the kids knowing they only have to come 170. That gives us three days that we can cut off because we also add extra minutes each day to get them to the 1,062 hours.”
Williamson said with that formula in mind, “we owe six make-up days, three of which will be made up in March on days that students would have been out of school according to the calendar – the 9th, 19th and 20th.”
She said that will leave three days which were already built in, “so the kids will still be getting out on May 22, however teachers cannot cut days or count minutes and will not be getting out until May 28th.
Williamson did say that there will be no other days in the calendar that can be used for school closures.
School closures did not affect spring break which is scheduled for April 6th through the 10th.