The closure of schools Jan. 13 this year added the first make-up day, Thursday, May 24, to the calendar. The next two days that would be added would be Friday, May 25, and Monday, Feb. 20 (President’s Day).
Young said the district would use President’s Day for school if a third snow day occurs on or before Friday, Feb. 17.
Teachers have been mentioning that the benefits of staying in school are immediate in addition to getting students out of school earlier, Young said.
“Everybody’s talked about how this has been the most productive January that they can remember in a long time without having those repeated interruptions,” she said. “... The big impact on the end of the school year is exciting, too — to think that we would be finished even before Memorial Day would be wonderful.”
This week is also the district’s annual “Count Me In” week, when schools focus on the importance of students being in school. Attendance advocate Earl Trent said the week is usually around the time of the Super Bowl and is scheduled away from bad weather as much as possible.
“Usually with our attendance, we start seeing a decline during this second half of the school year,” Trent said. “We realize that February we’re usually hit pretty hard by the elements but also by sickness, so it’s just a week for us to try to get everybody focused, and if they can be at school, we want them to try to be in attendance.”
The majority of snow days tend to occur during January and February; the four closures last school year in December were twice as many as that month had seen the previous six years combined. February has seen 15 snow days in Jessamine County in the last five years.
Jessamine County has had at least eight snow days each of the last three years, including last year’s 10. Young said the forecast looks good for the coming weeks but she knows the district is not out of the woods.
“We’re not breathing a sigh of relief just yet,” she said.
The final five possible make-up days are scheduled for the Tuesday through Friday after Memorial Day and Monday, June 4. Graduation is currently scheduled for Friday, June 1, but could be pushed back to Friday, June 8, if make-up days require the move.
