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Already this month, students in Prince Edward County Public Schools have missed several days due to snow and icy conditions. Tuesday, Jan. 7; Wednesday, Jan. 8 and Monday, Jan. 13 all involved missed class time, with a handful of others affected with two-hour delays. With that in mind, Prince Edward School Board members heard an update on Wednesday, Jan. 15 about where the district currently stands in terms of make-up days. 

Jeanine Garrett, the district’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction, told the board each school is required to have 180 days of learning or 990 instructional hours. 

“Instructional hours for the middle and elementary schools are a piece of cake,” Garrett said. “Instructional hours for the high school, it’s a little different. So we just have to do some mathematical computing.” 

Garrett told the board the district is good right now in terms of instructional hours, but just in case more snow arrives this winter, she suggested using at least one of the scheduled make-up days in the calendar. That would be Monday, Feb. 17, which students have off for Presidents Day. 

“We don’t know what’s gonna come up,” Garrett said. “There is a chance we may see more weather, we never know.” 

One makeup day set for Prince Edward schools

She added that the state department of education would likely forgive one or two snow days if asked, but it looks better for a district if they use some make-up days first before making the request. 

Board member Susan Kimbrough said she was fine using make-up days, as long as the district didn’t extend the term of the school year. 

“We don’t change SOLs, we don’t change testing and school is over (after that), graduation has occurred,” Kimbrough said. “To add makeup days at the end of the year feels almost like cruel and unusual punishment to both teachers and students.” 

The board agreed to use Feb. 17 as a make-up day for students and staff.