The Nelson County School Board decided last week to add 20 more minutes of class time to the end of every school day from now until the end of June to help make up the 13 school days Nelson County Public School students have missed so far this year due to weather and road conditions.
This is the first time in seven years that students have missed more than two weeks of school days. During the 2002-03 school year, classes were canceled for a total of 20 days and in the 2003-04 school year, schools were canceled for 14 days.
Nelson County Schools Superintendent Roger Collins said the decision to lengthen the school day was made to begin the process of “gaining back valuable instructional time.”
School days will begin at their regularly scheduled time, but will extend for 20 minutes and buses will be running 20 minutes later than normal.
Students also will attend school on days that previously were scheduled as holidays or teacher workdays: Feb. 18, Feb. 19, March 8 and June 4.
Students also are scheduled to attend school on Memorial Day, May 31.
The current last day of school is June 8. Nelson County High School’s graduation is set for June 11.
Collins said this strategy also would shorten the total makeup days needed to comply with state guidelines, which state that a school division must have 990 total hours or 180 days of instruction.
Adding the time will not make up the total amount of days needed, however, to meet that requirement, Collins said. A full makeup schedule has not been released.
“The main reason I have not recommended the full makeup day schedule is because I don’t think winter is over yet,” Collins said. “If more days are missed, then the calendar will be looked at again in its entirety.”
Collins said he expects the school board to review the school year calendar again at its March 11 meeting.
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