As you know, every TV news station and forecast said a severe weather storm was headed our way. Our school system started preparing immediately.

On the Friday before the weather event, Assistant Superintendent Jim Smith convened a group of administrators to discuss our action if we had inclement weather. We addressed concerns about notifying everyone and the conditions that would close school. We decided the indicators we would look for.

We coordinated with City of Griffin, Spalding County, and the Sheriff's Department. We had conversations with the superintendents from surrounding counties. As we got closer and closer to Sunday, it became clear that the forecasts were right. The majority of Georgia school systems did close because of the snow and ice.

Each day we were closed, we continued to monitor the weather and news. Jim Smith, Assistant Superintendent, along with Lamar Smith, our Director of Transportation, continued to work with local agencies such as the Sheriff's Department to learn about road conditions. Bruce Ballard, Director of Facilities and Maintenance, ensured our buildings and their kitchens were still operational and that heat was still working.

While some of us waited for the weather to clear, Mr. Ballard's maintenance department worked on student and faculty parking lots to remove ice and put down sand. This was on top of all of the work they did for the Growth Opportunity Day last week. What a great group of employees! Thank you!

Early Wednesday morning, Lamar Smith asked several bus drivers to drive their routes to observe road conditions. We were still in contact with the local agencies to know the roads that were open and those which were closed.

That morning at 10am the school system's senior cabinet (Jim Smith, Mrs. Denise Burrell, Mrs. Stephanie Dobbins, Mrs. Anna Burns, and Mrs. Gail Patterson) and I met and started reviewing the issues surrounding opening school the next day.

An hour later, all the department heads came in to join the discussion. At this time we received an update from Lamar Smith and Bruce Ballard about the roads, school parking lots, sidewalks, and buildings. Mrs. Mary Ramsaier, Director of Nutrition, also gave us an update about the delivery of food for students.

We decided to ask our bus drivers to come in for the afternoon and drive their routes so that we could hear directly from them about local road conditions. We also had conversations with superintendents from surrounding school districts to learn about their road conditions because we have many employees living out of Spalding County.

• All of the information was back at 4pm on Wednesday.
• Lamar Smith prepared a map showing areas of concern.
• We looked at each school and parking lot.
• We determined to have school on Thursday. 

So, now that we've been out for three days the question becomes do we have to make them up? Well, Georgia law (code 20-2-1-168C1) does allow us to have what's called "four emergency days". It also says in this section of the code that school systems have to offer 180 school days of instruction or the equivalent thereof every year.

But, there is another provision (code 20-2-168C3) that says emergency situations arise and because of these the school year can be reduced from 180 instructional days to 176. This can be approved locally by the school superintendent and the board of education.

In our case, you may remember that when the fiscal year started we determined we had a shortage of financial resources. Therefore, students were scheduled to come to school 178 days. This means we've already used 2 of the 4 emergency days.

Because we were closed for 3 snow days, students will be out of school for a total of five days, creating a 175 day school year - if nothing else changes between now and the school year. We have to make up one instructional day.

At this point, we have not determined how or when we are going to make up this day. There are many considerations:

Options include adding a day on the end of the school year.
Other options include adding minutes on to each day in order to get to the equivalent to the day that we have missed.
There is the possibility that the governor and legislature may decide to act if they believe we need additional flexibility. 
 
There are pros and cons with each option, so we'll just have to wait and see what develops.  We will talk with principals, the superintendent's advisory councils, and the board of education to decide the best way to make up this day.  

As you know, we reduced preplanning by one day, did not have the October parent conference day, and did not have two Professional Learning Days in January right after the Christmas break. Those are the four days that some call furloughs, but are really "work schedule adjustment days".

Some may suggest, "Well, just apply the snow days to those furlough days and give us our money." The problem with that is we did not work those days.  In order to be paid, we have to work. Those days are behind us and we can't do that. Unfortunately, furlough days and snow days are not interchangeable.

As you know, this is only January. Sometimes the worst winter weather happens in February and March. We will have to wait until the end of February or the beginning of March to decide best how to make up the one instructional day that we currently have to make up. Hopefully, we won't have anymore snow days, which would only compound the issue.

There are many moving pieces, and it's an interesting time. I hope this has clarified some of the questions you may have about snow days. We will have to make decisions about make-up days - both for students and employees. I hope you share your thoughts with your principal and school council. 
 

Thank you!  And enjoy the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday!

Curtis

Daring to do Better!