Dear Fayette County Public School Parents, Students and Employees:
This week our principals, teachers and central office staff have been working to determine what plan of action we needed to follow in order to make up the days we have missed this year due to severe weather making it dangerous for our students, employees and parents to travel. To date, students have missed seven days of school. After communicating with school staff and administrators, we have finalized our plans for making up lost instructional time.
Along with most school districts in Georgia, Fayette County Public Schools has a flexibility contract with the state that is called a Strategic Waiver School System (SWSS) contract. This means we are not required by law or state board rule to make up days that are missed; it is a local school district decision as to whether or not we make up missed days. Our system already has additional instructional minutes built into the regular school day. In deliberating on how to effectively and efficiently recover lost instructional time, we were guided by the following key priorities:
- Avoid disruption of families’ previously scheduled vacation time during the formal breaks (e.g. February Winter Break and April Spring Break)
- Seek make-up days where students were already scheduled to be in attendance for a partial or full day (e.g. early release dates and standardized state assessment dates)
- Steer clear, if possible, of options that would require the extension of the school day or year so as to minimize undue disruptions to our transportation and extracurricular afterschool activity schedules
With these priorities in mind, we will convert our two early release professional learning days (Wednesday, January 31st and Wednesday, March 14th) to full instructional days for students. Additionally, we will adjust our Milestones testing schedule by moving the start dates of these assessments back by three days for our elementary and secondary schools. Click on this link for revised spring testing: Revised Testing Calendar
We recognize this plan could be impacted by future severe weather. With several weeks of winter weather remaining, we are proactively working to develop digital learning options in the event of future severe weather that might force school system closures. Thanks for your support of our efforts to ensure the continuity of students’ learning, achievement and growth.
