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WS/FCS considers adding 15 minutes to school days to make up for weather closures

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is looking for feedback on how to make up missed school days due to inclement weather. 

The state requires 1,025 hours of instruction per academic year, but with multiple school closures due to snow and other weather events, the district is about 13 hours short.

At a recent Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Tricia McManus proposed making up the lost time by adding 15 minutes to each school day for the rest of the year starting Feb. 3.  

“It has to be instructional. So you'd have to say, 'We'll add some to each period,'" McManus said. "There's options. Fifteen minutes could go a long way.”

Alternatively, the district could add more school days to the end of the year. 

WS/FCS families and staff have been sent surveys to give feedback on these options. The school board will discuss and vote on a plan at their meeting next Tuesday. 

Amy Diaz covers education for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.

Amy Diaz began covering education in North Carolina’s Piedmont region and High Country for WFDD in partnership with Report For America in 2022. Before entering the world of public radio, she worked as a local government reporter in Flint, Mich. where she was named the 2021 Rookie Writer of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Diaz is originally from Florida, where she interned at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and freelanced for the Tampa Bay Times. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Florida, but truly got her start in the field in elementary school writing scripts for the morning news. You can follow her on Twitter at @amydiaze.

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