Southeast Tennessee school directors said they are monitoring student and staff absenteeism, but several believe the widespread illness that closed some schools for several days in February is behind them.
Grundy County Schools Director Joel “Jody” Hargis said closing schools seemed to give students and teachers time to recuperate.
“When we see a steady increase in absenteeism, and it gets around 9 percent or 10 percent, we start monitoring it,” Mr. Hargis said. “In our case, over a three-day period we went from 10 percent to 14 percent. We had two snow days (last week), and we felt like if we took Friday off that would provide some days for kids to get better.”
Directors at other school districts that closed for sickness, including Rhea, Polk, Marion and Grundy, said school was back in session Monday. Most tried to organize closings around weekends or holidays to provide time for students and teaches to recover.
Polk County Schools closed the Friday and Monday before Election Day, administrative assistant Sharon Laycock said.
“We normally close on Election Day because people vote at the schools, so we took advantage of that to give them a long weekend,” Mrs. Laycock said. “We did a total bleach cleaning, bathrooms, walls and everything. You can’t do that when kids are here. And it worked.”
Districts build in days in the 180-day school calendar for weather, sickness or other problems. The days must be approved by the state education commissioner, spokeswoman Rachel Woods said.
“Most of the time (approval) is pretty standard,” Ms. Woods said.
Bradley County and Cleveland City Schools have not used any floating days, officials said.
“We are watching our absenteeism,” said Rick Denning, Cleveland City Schools director. “Today it is around 9 percent. If it reaches around 20 percent absenteeism systemwide, then we have to look closely (at closing).”
Meigs County School district has avoided closing for illness so far but absenteeism among teachers may force the district to close, director Don Roberts said.
Grundy County Schools has used 10 of its 13 days, Mr. Hargis said, mostly for bad weather. Calling off classes for more than the three remaining days might mean extending the school year, he said.
WHAT IT MEANS
Tennessee’s school year is 180 days, but most schools build in extra days for bad weather, illness or staff development.
