Additional 3 school days sought to fill Irma losses

All three days were previously scheduled as teacher work days.

Palm Beach County’s public schools plan to schedule three makeup days to recover classroom time missed because of Hurricane Irma, including the last day of the winter break.

The school district on Tuesday announced three proposed makeup days: Monday, Oct. 16; Friday, Nov. 3 and Monday, Jan. 8. The county School Board will consider the plan today.

All three days were previously scheduled as teacher work days, including Jan. 8, which would have been the last day of winter

break for students.

The county’s public schools missed seven days of class before and after Irma, the largest layoff since Hurricane Wilma in 2005. If board members approve the makeup plan, students will have missed four days of school as a result of the storm.

The announcement comes a week and a half after Schools Superintendent Robert Avossa vowed not to schedule any makeup days during the winter break.

“I’m sticking with my commitment that the Thanksgiving break and the winter holiday, as they’ve been designed, will not be impacted,” Avossa said at a Sept. 15 news conference.

In an interview Tuesday, he defended the move as “a good compromise,” saying that calling students back to class a day early would have minimal impacts on family travel plans because the makeup day falls on a Monday.

“A lot of parents are back at work on that Monday,” Avossa said. “We didn’t feel it was as disruptive of a break.”

He also pointed out that Jan. 8 isn’t technically part of the holiday break. Even though students have the day off, it was always a working day for teachers and other school employees and isn’t classified as a holiday on the school district calendar.

“It seemed like I flipflopped,” he said. “The reality is that’s not considered a holiday.”

State education officials last week waived two days from the state’s minimum class-time requirements. Avossa said that no makeup days are necessary because the school district already provides far more instructional hours than state law requires.

But he has said he worried about the effect of so much missed class time on student learning.

“Every missed hour is a missed opportunity to grow and learn,” Avossa said earlier this month.

Broward County’s public schools announced that they would change two early-release days — Oct. 19 and Dec. 22 — into full instructional days but would not schedule any makeup days beyond that, the Sun Sentinel reported.

Justin Katz, president of the county’s teachers union, said he supported the proposal over other scenarios, such as tacking on make-up days at the end of the year. He said Avossa was scheduled to meet with union members Tuesday afternoon to discuss it.

“Given the possible alternatives ... I personally believe the proposed use of the three (planning) days in question yields the best outcome for all parties,” he said.

Some teachers, though, took to social media to raise concerns about the loss of planning time. One middle-school teacher wrote on Facebook that converting planning days into regular school days “just means we will be completing our grades outside of contract hours.”