No fall break for Whitley County students next year

Students and staff in the Whitley County school district won’t be getting a fall break next year.

The Whitley County Board of Education held it’s monthly meeting Thursday, and approved the 2018-2019 school calendar, which includes a start date of Monday, Aug. 27, and a tentative closing date of May 17, 2019.

Last month, Deputy Superintendent Paula Trickett told the board that the state legislature amended the law in 2017 to give school districts some flexibility in regards to the school calendar if they start their school year on the Monday closest to Aug. 26.

As a compromise for the later start day, Trickett said principals asked that fall break be eliminated, which is something the new school calendar does.

Also during Thursday’s brief meeting, which lasted for about 20 minutes, the board met in executive session for about 15 minutes to discuss pending litigation and the possible appointment of an individual employee, but took no formal action after it emerged from executive session.

The board is currently only involved in one pending lawsuit.

On March 22, 2016, the parents of a 10-year-old boy, who was run over by a school bus when he got off of it in 2015, filed suit against the school district, the bus driver, the school board, and numerous school district administrators and employees.

On March 23, 2015, Jonathan Austin Chatham was riding Whitley County school bus #993 home from school when he got off the 1999 International school bus with three other children on Highway 779.

“The victim, Jonathan Chatham, age 10, had just exited the bus, but had not cleared the bus when it began to pull out,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Craig Reed, who is an accident reconstructionist, wrote in the narrative for the traffic collision report. “The juvenile went under the bus tires on the right side of the bus.”

The collision report lists “none detected” under vehicular factors, but notes two human factors, “failed to yield right of way” and “inattention.”