Barrow School System to increase length of school year

Barrow County’s public school students will have a longer school year starting in August. Whether it will be 10 or 20 days longer is up in the air. The Barrow County Board of Education cut the current school year to 160 days in order to save money.

School superintendent Wanda Creel on Tuesday night asked the board to restore half of the cut days for the 2013-1024 school year. She said her preference is for a 170-day calendar that begins Aug. 7 and keeps the full week of Fall Break in October. She asked the BOE to consider adopting the calendar Feb. 4. However, BOE member Rickey Bailey said he would prefer the schools return to a full, 180-day schedule. He said a financial projection presented earlier in the meeting showed a difference of only $250,000 in the cost of a 180-day calendar versus a 170-day calendar.

See complete story in Wednesday's print edition of the Barrow Journal.