Stephens Co. Schools Set Make-up Days

The Stephens County school system officially sets make-up days to recover the time lost out of school this week due to winter weather.

Thursday, the Board voted unanimously to make up the four days of school lost this week on March 16, March 17, April 1, and April 2.

March 16 and 17 are days listed on the calendar as Inclement Weather Recovery Days, while April 1 and 2 are days that the school system added onto Spring Break when additional furlough days were put into the calendar last month.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said that it is important to recover these days before Spring Break so as to maximize instructional time in the classroom.

Dorsey said that is because of testing for the elementary and middle schools that starts shortly after Spring Break.

“If we put those (make-up days) back at the end of the year, not only would we have lost this instructional time this week, we will not recover before students take those tests.”

Dorsey said that while the tests are just serving as a database this year and are not counting, he felt it is important to do as well on those tests this year as possible.

As for any idea of just not making up the days, Dorsey said he did not feel that was something to consider.

“I certainly believe that our instructional time is valuable, so cutting any more days off the school calendar for students than the 16 we have already cut is just something I would not support unless we had no other choices,” said Dorsey.

He went on to say the school system is already asking enough of teachers to accomplish everything without cutting more days.