Effingham County School System students won’t have to make up the two days lost to winter weather last week.
School board members opted not to try to carve two more days out of the schedule, which, as Superintendent Randy Shearouse noted, ends on a Friday — with a high school graduation ceremony that night and the following night.
“Georgia law allows up to four days for weather or emergencies,” Shearouse said at Wednesday’s board meeting. “So you can miss four days without having to make them up. Without adding on days, we would have to take a holiday. Monday is Memorial Day, and that would be difficult.”
The school system also doesn’t have any furlough days scheduled for which it has to account, Shearouse said, which many districts across the state still are implementing. Shearouse said the system will be “OK” without making up the days for students.
“We still have a couple of days to play with, according to state rules,” he added.
Classes were called off for Jan. 28 and Jan. 29 in anticipation of winter weather making travel to and from schools difficult.
While students won’t have squeeze in two extra days before the end of the school year, the school system is juggling how to account for the time missed by staff. How to adjust the employees’ schedules and pay doesn’t appear to be complicated at first blush, Shearouse said, “until you think about how many employees we have.”
Under a proposal approved Wednesday by the board members, employees who worked a half-day Jan. 28 will be paid for a full day. Employees who worked following the two-hour delay to the start of the Jan. 30 school day and worked the rest of the normal day also will receive a regular day’s pay. Those employees also do not have to make up the missed time for either Jan. 28 or Jan. 30.
Employees also will be paid for the Jan. 29 day when schools were closed for the entire day and will make up that missed time by working a regular number of hours May 28. May 28 is a scheduled workday for employees on a 260-day contract and they may make up Jan. 29 by working four 10-hour days the week of April 14 or use Jan. 29 as a vacation day.
Bus drivers will receive full pay for Jan. 28 and receive full pay and make up the missed time for Jan. 29 by attending training May 27 from 9 a.m.-noon in the school board auditorium. They also will receive full pay for Jan. 30.
Food service personnel will receive full pay for Jan. 28 and 30 and will receive full pay for Jan. 29 by making up missed time on March 17. School nurses will receive full pay for Jan. 28 and 30 and receive full pay and make up missed time for Jan. 29 at a later date.
