UPDATED: Full Spring Break back on for county school system

Spring Break will remain a full week for the Jackson County School System after all. Superintendent Shannon Adams announced Wednesday, March 11, that the district will no longer will use Monday, April 6, as a make-up for the recent snowstorm.

That means students and staff in the county school system will have the entire week devoted to Spring Break.

However, a make-up day on Friday, March 13, remains untouched. Students and staff will report to school that day, which was previously scheduled as a teacher planning day.

The district announced last week that it would schedule Friday, March 13, and Monday, April 6, as make-up days after the school system canceled classes for two days following a snowstorm on March 1.

The good news about Spring Break came after Adams attended a RESA legislative breakfast on Wednesday.

“The bad news is that a lot of people have been inconvenienced by my original decision,” Adams wrote in an email to employees. “Some of you have spent a lot of time and energy trying to change travel plans or gather trip documentation to submit.”

Adams said those employees who submitted documentation to take a leave on April 6 will have their papers shredded. He hopes that those employees who changed their vacation plans for the once-scheduled make-up day can change them again.

Administrators also spent hours trying to find an adequate number of substitute teachers to replace those teachers requesting a leave on April 6, he added.

“There has been considerable anguish just at the thought of losing a spring holiday, and I’m sure there have been many other consequences of which I am not aware,” Adams wrote to employees.

Jackson County School System officials weren’t aware of a recent change in state law that would allow the district to miss three or four days of school without a financial penalty from the state, Adams said in an interview.

Before the change last year in state law, a school system could have one missed school day and not face losing QBE funds, he said.

“They used to forgive a day, but you didn’t get your QBE funding,” Adams said. “Which, for us, that day would have been about $200,000 in teacher salaries alone.”

The Jackson County School System will hold its Spring Break April 6-12.