Even though the Hampton Roads community did not sustain the expected damaging impact of Hurricane Florence, schools were still closed for four days that week.
The following adjustments have been made to the 2018-2019 school calendar.
Families and staff are asked to plan accordingly.
These adjustments will account for the four missed days of instruction and provide 2.5 “banked” instructional days for inclement weather.
The start time for school will not change.
Click here to view the new dismissal times for Hampton City Schools.
Click here to view the revised bus schedule for Hampton City Schools.
Hampton
Beginning Oct. 1, 10 additional minutes will be added to the end of each school day through the remainder of the year.
Dec. 19, Feb. 15 and May 24, will now be full school days for all students and staff.
These dates were originally early close days.
Newport News
Starting Monday, Oct. 7, 10 minutes will be added to each school day for the rest of the year and Wednesday, Dec. 19 will be a full-day instead of a half-day.
For information, visit the Newport News Public Schools website.
There were several questions that were posed to the school districts, here are some answers:
- Does missed instructional time need to be made up, since the governor declared a state of emergency?
- Yes. Section 22.1-98 of the Code of Virginia states that the Board of Education may waive the requirement that school divisions provide additional teaching days or teaching hours to compensate for school closings resulting from a declared state of emergency. However, in order to receive such a waiver, the school division must include evidence of efforts that have been made to reschedule as many days as possible and certification that every reasonable effort for making up lost teaching days or teaching hours was exhausted before requesting the waiver.
- If my child participates in an after-school program, will the program dismiss at a new time?
- If your child participates in a 21st Century Community Learning Center after-school program, 10 additional minutes will be added to the end of each day. If your child participates in another type of after-school program, staff of that program will communicate the program ending time with you, if the program ending time is affected.
- How will the additional “banked” instructional days be handled if they are not needed for any other inclement weather events, and students and staff do not miss additional days from school?
- This will be revisited in the spring and any decision to adjust the calendar will be communicated to staff and parents in a timely manner. As always, direct teaching and learning remains a priority within HCS and the effective use of instructional time is important to our core business.
