Students in Polk County Schools will have to make up some more time that was lost due to recent winter storms.
The Polk County Board of Education approved Monday a revised school calendar. All Polk students will have a full day of school on Wednesday, March 24, rather than a half day as originally planned, and they have an added regular school day on Monday, May 31.
Saluda students, who missed even more time, also have to attend school on Saturday, March 27. That should be the last Saturday they have to attend school. Saluda students already made up a day of school on a Saturday earlier this year and they attended school this past Saturday with 90 percent attendance.
Polk County Schools Supt. Bill Miller says teachers and staff in Saluda will end up with the same number of days in March that they would have worked on a regular schedule.
Miller added that principals at Polk schools agreed it makes sense to have a full day on March 24 considering all of the schedule disruptions this winter.
The Polk County school board also considered Monday the proposed calendar for next year, and a suggestion to reduce the Christmas break.
Miller told the board that parents suggested sending kids to school on Monday, December 20 and Tuesday, December 21 because Christmas is on a Saturday this year. The 2010-2011 calendar originally proposed a 10-day Christmas break from December 20 through December 31.
Sending students to school on December 20 and December 21 would add two open days in the second semester, providing more scheduling flexibility for make-up days.
School board members Lucinda Allen and Rick Covil said they favor shortening the Christmas break to provide two more instructional days in first semester and two more make-up days in second semester, when they are often needed.
“I would like to equalize the semesters and have an extra, couple days for weather in second semester,” said Allen.
Covil said, “I agree. I think were going to have hard winters the next couple years.”