‘There’s no perfect plan’ — school board votes against parents’ wishes on makeup days

Students will finish their first semester — and take end-of-course exams — after they return from winter break to make up days lost to Hurricane Matthew, Beaufort County school board decided Tuesday.

The board’s decision goes against a recommendation from Superintendent Jeff Moss and the preference of a majority of staff and parents to cut into winter break.

That appeared to irk board chair Mary Cordray, who questioned why the body was devoting so much time to discussing an option that wasn’t endorsed by district leaders or community members.

“I guess I’m trying to figure out what it is that makes us not want to follow their recommendation when we trust them on a daily basis to make the educational decisions for every kid in the district,” Cordray said.

JoAnn Orischak, who raised the motion to extend the school year, responded that there was enough community support for both Options 3 and 4 to merit discussion.

“There’s no perfect plan here,” she said. “It’s up to the will of the board.”

The group ultimately voted 7-4 to accept the third of four options presented by Moss on Tuesday, with board chairwoman Mary Cordray and members Bill Payne, Joseph Dunkle and Paul Roth opposing. Their decision leaves the start of students’ and staffs’ winter break untouched and calls for students to return to school Jan. 3. The first semester will end Jan. 12.

Students will not begin taking their final exams or end-of-course exams until Jan. 5; and Jan. 13 will become a teacher workday. Second semester will begin Jan. 17 and end May 31, pushing back the end of the school year and high school graduation dates.

That proposal was not favored in surveys of employees and parents and was not recommended by Moss. Only 35 percent of the 2,010 employees and 26 percent of the 700 parents who responded to district surveys chose Option 3.

The biggest concern seemed to be the impact on high school testing. Moss urged the board not to alter the schedule in such a way that leaves students with no classtime to review material before taking their exams.

Instead, Moss and most survey respondents wanted to make up days the first week of winter break. During Tuesday’s meeting, Moss assured school board member David Striebinger that, if the board went that route, principals would accommodate families who already had travel or other commitments during the proposed makeup days.

However, Moss said late Tuesday he could not promise that principals would accommodate families under Option 3.

Still, he said schools would try to determine as soon as possible whether any families are affected by the new schedule, such as students graduating early in the winter and planning to report for military duty immediately afterward.

A U.S. Army recruiter in Beaufort said Wednesday he wasn’t aware of any students in that position, but that the military would be flexible with students in light of changes to the district calendar.

There were two other possibilities under consideration Tuesday night, but they weren’t popular. About 30 percent of employees and 20 percent of parents surveyed said they would prefer the district extend the school day for an hour until all the missed time was made up, or hold makeup days on Saturdays.

The district lost a total of eight instructional days — Oct. 5 to Oct. 14 — for Hurricane Matthew after Gov. Nikki Haley ordered coastal counties to evacuate ahead of the storm. South Carolina laws covering minimum instructional time required the district to restore most of those days.

The school board voted already to waive three makeup days, and Moss plans to ask the S.C. Board of Education to waive another.

The district expects to release an updated academic calendar by Thursday.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 10:09 PM with the headline "‘There’s no perfect plan’ — school board votes against parents’ wishes on makeup days."