Schools add four classroom days to make up for weather cancellations

St. Mary Parish Assistant Superintendent Teresa Bagwell sent this press release Tuesday morning:

The St. Mary Parish School Board approved adjustments to the school calendar that resulted from weather related closures throughout the 2017-2018 school year. The loss of instructional time will primarily be reinstated through the inclusion of emergency days annually identified as part of the school calendar. Severe
weather conditions including Hurricane Harvey and extreme winter temperatures caused the district to close
all schools for six days.

In an effort to restore instructional time, the district will add the following days to the remaining school year:

• February 14-16, 2018

• March 15, 2018

Additionally, Raintree Elementary will adjust its daily schedule by 20 minutes to resolve school days missed
due to an interruption of the school’s water service. The revised schedule will mean that Raintree Elementary
students will attend school from 8:00 a.m.-3:20 p.m. beginning Monday, February 5th and ending Friday,
April 27th. The extra minutes will help mitigate the additional three days Raintree was unable to hold classes.

Superintendent Leonard Armato expressed his concern for the interruption of instruction and empathizes
with issues raised regarding needed adjustments to the school calendar. “The school district is deeply
mindful of the need to meet state instructional guidelines and ensure that students have every opportunity to
receive classroom instruction that will adequately prepare them to attain promotional standards. Ongoing
weather conditions have made it necessary to periodically close schools in order to maintain student safety as
they travel to school each day. Our main priority is to offer students a safe and comprehensive education and
the reinstatement of instructional time will support that endeavor.”