Superintendent Tricia McManus laid out the next steps concerning inclement weather during the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education meeting on Tuesday night.
Four days of school have already been canceled in 2025 due to icy roads, and some forecasts are calling for additional weather events next week. This Friday, students will be bringing home digital devices so that classes can continue online if necessary. This will be the plan for all future inclement weather warnings this year. While district leaders agree that shifting to remote learning is an imperfect solution, it will likely be necessary to avoid any further make-up time.
Two inclement weather days from the fall semester have already been forgiven, and two of the days from this semester have been scheduled for make-up time on March 7 and April 21. However, that still leaves the district with only 1,012 instructional hours on its calendar for the year, short of the 1,025 required by the state.
The Board of Education is currently considering two options for making up this time. Those two extra days could be made up on the next available days, which would be May 21-22 at the end of the school year. Those days are currently scheduled as teacher workdays. Alternatively, the school day could be lengthened by 15 minutes for the rest of the year, likely starting on Monday, January 27 or Monday, February 3.
Feeding food-insecure students during storms is also a top priority for the district, especially since recent weather events have bordered weekends and kept these students out of school for even longer periods. Going forward, the district will try to set up 10 sites around the county that can serve between 25-75 lunches each for students who need it on days when schools are closed.
McManus and the board members also took care to thank the district’s maintenance staff, who have been tirelessly working since Saturday to remove ice on campuses and make them as safe as possible for when students return to school.
“They spent the entire weekend at schools plowing and shoveling to get us ready, and they continue to do that,” McManus said. “Our maintenance team, they’re amazing.”
Also on the board’s agenda for the evening were:
- Reelection of Deanna Kaplan as Board of Education Chair and Alexandre Bohannon as Board of Education Vice Chair
- Presentation of a donation to WS/FCS middle school athletic programs from the Winston-Salem Open
- Special recognitions for National Special Education Day, Kristy Franklin as 2024 WS/FCS Outstanding Elementary Mathematics Teacher, and Christy McDougall winning the Office of Exceptional Children Educator of Excellence Award
- Updates on the Infinite Campus Student Information system conversion, the Tyler Munis ERP software system, the FY2024 audit, Future Ready programming implementation, and the future of the Virtual Academy
- Approval of the 2024-25 Early and Middle College calendar reconciliation, the sale of a surplus property on Nicholson & Terry Road, use of Wiley Middle School 2016 Bond funds to support completion of the Wiley/Reynolds stadium project, and several other action items
The Board of Education will meet again on Tuesday, January 28 at 6:30 pm.