Snow Burn: County schools to adjust 2017-18 calendar at BOE meeting

Published 6:31 pm Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Inclement weather made its presence felt this week across Northeast Tennessee.

And that presence will be a topic of discussion during this evening’s Carter County Board of Education meeting as officials will meet to look at options to adjust their 2017-18 academic calendar.

Carter County Superintendent Dr. Kevin Ward confirmed to the Elizabethton Star Wednesday afternoon that the system has surpassed their 13 allotted days for inclement weather, on top of four additional days. That total was prior to the Elizabethton Star’s press deadline.

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“We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow and there are a couple of options we’ll look at,” Ward said. “We’ve missed 13 days on top of four, and that’s not counting any more that we could have.”

Thursday’s meeting is scheduled to take place at Happy Valley High School at 6 p.m.

Snow and ice battered the region Wednesday morning causing several schools having to close in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. And locally, not to be left out of the spring snow was Elizabethton City Schools.

According to Director of Schools Dr. Corey Gardenhour, the system missed their final allotted snow day but that any other days that could be potentially missed would be traded in for professional days during the end of the year.

“As long as there isn’t a blizzard that comes through, we expect to be fine,” Gardenhour said. “If there is a need to miss, we would look at using one of our professional development days near the end of the school year. At this point, we should be OK.”

Various locations lead to Elizabethton City Schools closing down, according to Gardenhour, including the Siam and Gap Creek area.