UNDATED - Three north Georgia school districts that had planned to use the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as a makeup day after being shut down by snow and ice last week are taking the day off after all and officials in one are already putting together a plan to make p the days.
The plan to use the holiday on Monday to make up one of the lost days in Habersham, Gilmer and Fannin counties drew criticism from civil rights leaders.
School officials say road conditions in the counties still have not improved sufficiently to reopen the schools.
Fannin County Schools Superintendent Mark Henson told Georgia News Network his students have already missed eight days of instruction this year, so finding make-up days is a challenge.
That's why he says it was so important to have schools open Monday if it was at all possible.
"You know that wasn't something we anted to do (having school Monday) but we felt out of necessity for our children and their achievement we needed to have them in school," Henson told Georgia News Network.
Henson says even getting a state waiver for less school days won't help them in the spring.
"Even if we get a waiver, that waiver would be for four days at the end of the school year and that still doesn't help us with any of our CRCT, our end-of-course tests, our high school graduation tests."
Henson says Fannin will use the three-day President's Day holiday next month and probably some student holidays in March as make-up days.
Fannin County listed Monday as a professional learning day for the staff.
Habersham County and Gilmer County had also planned to hold classes Monday. Habersham County says its school board meeting Monday evening will go on as scheduled.
(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to that story.)
Sunday
July 6th, 2025
3:54PM
