GAINESVILLE -- The Gainesville City School Board has approved a recommendation for the school system to not ask students to make up the five days that were missed due to Tropical Storm Irma in September.
The recommendation came from Gainesville Schools Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Williams at the board's Monday meeting. Williams said school officials looked at a number of options to make up the days but could not find an option they were comfortable with.
"We went around Fall break and how close that was and how it would offset a lot of opportunities for families to get to do trips or spend time together as a family. Also the quality of instruction and attendance was a concern," Williams said.
He said officials also considered cutting into the Winter break, but said that that option was difficult for high school students because of their semester block schedules. He said the difficulty of the options along with new state milestone testing procedures led to the decision to not make up the days.
"Last year we tested around April 24, this year we're testing around May 9," Williams said. "So even with losing five days to the student calendar, we still have more instructional days prior to the milestones assessment than we had last year."
The school system will revise this year's calendar to change the amount of days from 180 to 175 to accommodate the move. Williams said as part of the decision, staff will be paid for the missed days as emergency leave days.
However, Williams said, staff members will be asked to put in some extra time outside of the classroom over the course of this school year.
"What we're asking staff to do is attending three extracurricular activities. One to be athletic-based, one to be arts based and one is a choice of their own," Williams said.
He said staff will not be allowed to count extracurricular activities that they already participate in.
School officials said hourly staff will be paid normally for the missed days.
Gainesville schools were among many school systems in Georgia that did not attend school from September 11 to September 15 as then-Tropical Storm Irma knocked out power and shut down many roads.
