ARKADELPHIA — Cold, snowy weather granted school children in the Tri-Lakes region at least six extra holidays this year, but students will pay back those days when the school year is extended in June, with some schools holding class far into the second week of June.
While state school regulations call for five snow days to be built into a school district’s calendar, the winter of 2011 has been especially hard on schools.
“We were very fortunate for years,” said Carolyn Wood, who works in the administrative office for the superintendent of the Arkadelphia Public Schools. “We did not have to make up more than one or two days. This year, it was our turn.”
Arkadelphia snows caused six school days to be postponed. One was made up on the Presidents Day holiday on Feb. 21. The rest will be added after the scheduled last day of school, Thursday, June 2.
Students will return to school on Friday, June 3, then go back to school on Monday, June 6, and continue through Thursday, June 9.
Wood said the school district explored the idea of having school on Saturday, but those days are already filled with school functions.
“There are so many Saturday activities that involved so many students and faculty that it could not work,” she said.
Having school on Saturday is a rare occurrence that requires special permission, said Doug West, assistant superintendent for the Sheridan School District. He said Saturday classes require the school district to be granted a waiver by the Arkansas Department of Education.
Students in Sheridan schools will have their first makeup day on Friday, April 22, first planned as a school holiday. The other five days will be Wednesday through Friday, June 1-3, then Monday and Tuesday, June 6-7, West said.
“This catches the five snow days built into the calendar, plus one more,” West said. “The Personnel Committee made the recommendation, and it was approved by the [Sheridan School District] Board. It was their decision.”
The Lakeside School District in Garland County will have one Saturday session on June 4, Superintendent Shawn Cook said.
“It will be the Saturday following the Memorial Day holiday,” Cook said. “That will be the last day of school.”
The last day for Lakeside schools would have been May 27. But the extension to Saturday was caused when one of the system’s scheduled makeup days, Feb. 11, was lost because it was snowing that day, Cook said.
After the Monday Memorial Day holiday, May 30, school will run for five days, ending Saturday.
School was to end on Thursday, June 2, in Bauxite, but will be extended because of the snow days, said a member of Bauxite School District Superintend Fred Dawson’s administrative staff.
The Bauxite School District Board members approved using two holidays, Presidents Day, Feb. 21, and Good Friday, April 22, as makeup days. The other four makeup days will start Friday, June 3, and resume the following Monday until Wednesday, June 8.
The Benton School District will also conduct classes through June 8. The school year was originally planned to end on Tuesday, May 31, but will continue until Wednesday, June 8, according to Superintendent Tony Prothro’s office.
The Bryant School District will follow a similar course, ending school on Tuesday, June 7. The system used the Presidents Day holiday as a makeup day, said Heather Tipton, who works in Superintendent Randy Rutherford’s office.
None of the snow-day delays will change the scheduled graduation dates for seniors in any of the school systems contacted by the Tri-Lakes Edition.
All of the school-system officials said all students are expected to attend the makeup days. However, most were reluctant to guess how many students would attend.
“We expect all the students to show up,” said West, in Sheridan. “How many really are there I am not prepared to predict.”
Wood was the most optimistic.
“We expect all the students to be there,” she said. “Our parents are very interested in education and that their children go to school.”