GAINESVILLE — Hoping to avoid an extended school year - which happened this year - the Hall County School Board has approved a 2015-16 school calendar with four built-in snow days after the first of the year.
Assistant Superintendent Eloise Barron said the targeted days can be used for snow days, if needed.
"So during the months of January, February and March, we've put four different days in that could be used," said Barron.
Barron identified the potential make-up days as January 18, February 15, February 26 and March 25.
In February, snow and ice prompted the cancelation of school in Hall County for four days. While some work was made up online during the actual snow period, the school system added two days to the end of the school year to make up for lost instructional time.
Barron acknowledged a number of students did not attend school on those final two days of class.
"We know that we had high absenteeism on those two days," said Barron.
The school board asked Technology Director Aaron Turpin to determine exactly what the absentee rate was on those final days of school, since they did not have concrete numbers to review at the Monday evening work session.
According to the new calendar, the first day of school for the 2015-16 school year will be August 7, while the last day of school will be May 25.
