Winter weather wreaking havoc on local school system calendars

The bouts with winter weather are, or close to, wreaking havoc on the local schools systems calendars.

Icy roads forced Corbin, Whitley County and Williamsburg school systems to cancel classes Monday.

While several periods of rain are forecast into the weekend, the National Weather Service predicts temperatures will remain above freezing.

Corbin and Williamsburg schools have both used their non-traditional instructional days (NTI days) to avoid extending the school year to this point.

Monday’s closure used the last of Corbin’s 10 allocated days.

Corbin Superintendent Dave Cox said if classes are cancelled again during the remainder of the year, the days would be added onto the calendar.

The last day for Corbin students is currently scheduled for May 18 with graduation to be held on May 20.

Cox emphasized that taking days off of spring break would be the very last resort.

“We would have to have miss monumental number of days between now and then,” Cox said.

Officials posted notices on social media that in the event of future inclement weather, officials would delay the start of school by two hours when possible to avoid closing school.

“If so, we will only use two-hour delays, meaning that schools will begin exactly two hours later than normal starting times and busses will be running two hours later than their normal pick-up times,” officials stated in a post on the Corbin Independent Schools Facebook page adding that school would be released on the regular schedule.

Breakfast and lunch would be served on the delay days, officials added.

With Monday’s closure, Williamsburg Independent Schools has two NTI days remaining.

“We have missed a few days that we did not claim as NTI days,” Couch said.

“With NTI you don’t want to pile that much work onto kids,” Couch added explaining he tries to space them out to give students the opportunity to complete the work.

With the additional school days added to the end of the calendar, the last day of classes for students has been moved from May 18 to May 25.

Couch said classes would not be held on May 22, which is Election Day in Kentucky.

“We have two precincts that vote in our building,” Couch said in explaining why.

Couch said there has been no discussion among the administration to shorten spring break.

“That is not on the radar at this point,” Couch said.

“We are still in a place where we could get out in May,” Couch added. “To me that is a victory.”

Whitley County Schools do not participate in the NTI days program.

As a result, all missed days must be made up as the calendar consists of the state mandated 170 school days.

Patrick Bowlin, Director of Pupil Personnel, said students have missed 11 days to date because of weather, moving the last day of school from May 16 to June 1.

“It is an option to take part of spring break as makeup days,” Bowlin said adding that some portion of spring break would be retained.

The Whitley County Board of Education is scheduled to hold its regular monthly meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday at the central office in Williamsburg.