Clarksville-Montgomery schools has used its stockpiled weather days. Now what?
Montgomery County's three-day Martin Luther King weekend observance quickly turned into almost a week out of school following the freezing temperatures and snow.
While those days are a nice unexpected break for students and teachers, the school system must watch its reserve of stockpiled weather days divvied out to school districts by the state.
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At the beginning of the school year, the Clarksville- Montgomery County School district had five inclement weather days reserved in its 180 days of instruction required for the school year, per state mandate.
Those five days were used in December when CMCSS began winter break a week early because of the Dec. 9 tornado that ripped through the city, leaving behind a path of destruction to the lives of people in the city and extensive damage to one CMCSS elementary school.
Here's what happens once those days are used.
Inclement Weather Days
Because all five inclement weather days were used in December, this week director of schools Jean Luna-Vedder submitted waiver requests to the Tennessee Commissioner of Education for days out this week due to snowy conditions.
The school district was granted up to five waiver days for inclement weather by the state department of education. The district has been determining on a day-by-day basis whether to use the granted days.
So far, three of the five days have been used.
The school district has not confirmed whether schools will be in or out Friday as of press time Thursday at 3 p.m.
If all five of those additional days are used, CMCSS will use its Inclement Weather Make-Up Plan.
The 2023-2024 Inclement Weather Make-Up Plan allows the first five days missed to not be made up by students.
The sixth and all following days would use:
February 7, 2024 (Staff development day)
February 19, 2024 (President's Day)
Thirty minutes added to 13 days, not to infringe upon the state testing window to account for a make-up day
This is not the first time CMCSS has had to apply for the waiver.
One was granted in the 2021-2022 school year for Northwest High School when it closed due to flooding, and waivers were granted during the pandemic, according to CMCSS chief communication officer Anthony Johnson.
Remote learning state option
Thanks to a Tennessee 2022 law, school districts could use up to two remote instruction days.
Here are the stipulations outlined in the law:
1. Local education agencies (LEAs) can switch a class, a school or all the schools in the LEA to remote instruction if there are dangerous or extreme weather conditions, or if there's a serious illness outbreak that could harm students or staff.
If an LEA uses remote instruction, they must provide at least six and a half hours of instruction per day for students in grades one through 12 and least four hours of instruction for kindergarten students.
During state-granted remote instruction, LEAs must provide school meals according to the school nutrition program and ensure services required by a student’s individualized education program (IEP) are available.
LEAs can also use remote instruction on days when big tests are scheduled. However, students need to take these tests in person, according to the state.
Education Reporter for The Tennessean Rachel Wegner contributed to this story.
Kenya Anderson is a reporter for The Leaf-Chronicle. She can be contacted at kanderson@gannett.com or on X at kenyaanderson32. Sign up for the Leaf-Chronicle to support local journalism at www.theleafchronicle.com.
This article originally appeared on Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle: Clarksville schools have options after using stockpile weather days
