Russellville schools will now be in session three days that had previously been scheduled as days off for students, Superintendent Leon Smith has announced. On two of those days, teachers were to have been dismissed, too, but they will now be on the job.
Kim McDaniel, who is principal of Russellville Senior and Junior High School, has also announced that grade cards will be delayed two school days.
The city schools have missed three days so far because of severe weather, and Smith notes, “Long range forecasts project more of the same.”
Smith explains that two days which were on the original calendar as “make-up days” will be used for that purpose. So school will be in session Monday, Feb. 17, and Friday, April 18. The third make-up day will be Tuesday, Jan. 21.
School will be still be dismissed Monday, Jan. 20 for Martin Luther King Day, The following day was to have been used as a Curriculum Day for faculty development, but now it will be a regular day of school. “If we have other snow days, we plan to use one of those days for staff to come in for Curriculum Day,” Smith said, while acknowledging that it will be difficult to find a time that scheduled presenters John Antonetti and Steve Ventura will be available.
Smith said the goal is still for school to end as originally scheduled on Monday, May 19, but he is assuring faculty, students and parents that the administration is not “looking at taking any days away from spring break.”
Meanwhile McDaniel said Thursday, “Due to our snow days early in the week, the reporting of grades had to be pushed back two days, as well. Therefore, report cards will not go out tomorrow as previously stated. They will be mailed on Tuesday, Jan. 14.