Oak Ridge Schools only need to make up two snow days

Oak Ridge Schools used nine snow days this year but only needs to make up two, an official said Thursday.

“As we have gone through the process of examining our snow day allocation, we discovered that, in addition to the three extra student instructional days we had built into our calendar, we were also entitled to three stockpiled snow days because of our longer school days as compared to state minimum requirements,” said Chris Marczak, assistant superintendent of Oak Ridge Schools. “The state acknowledged on March 9 that these three stockpiled snow days were due to Oak Ridge Schools for this school year and for future school years. We therefore have six total possible snow days, rather than three.”

In addition to these six days, Oak Ridge was just awarded a waiver from the state for one additional snow day, Marczak said.

“We therefore only need to make up two snow days,” he said.

Here’s the calculation by Oak Ridge Schools:

• 9 snow days – (3 extra student days + 3 stockpiled snow days + 1 day waiver) = 2 days to make up.

Linden Elementary School, Glenwood Elementary School, Woodland Elementary School, Jefferson Middle School, Robertsville Middle School, and Oak Ridge High School will work by extending their Wednesday schedules of March 25, April 1, April 8, and April 15 to a Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday schedule; these weeks will have five full scheduled days with no early student release times, Marczak said.

Here’s the calculation for Willow Brook Elementary School and the Preschool:

• 8 snow days – (3 extra student days + 3 stockpiled snow days + 1 day waiver) = 1 day to make up.

Therefore, these two schools will only extend their Wednesdays on April 8 and April 15.

“We are grateful to Commissioner McQueen and her staff for their understanding and thorough review of the process during this time of unprecedented weather conditions,” Marczak said.