Spring break for Pea Ridge schools will be shorter than the week previously planned.
Missing Monday and Tuesday of this week will result in loosing the first two days of spring break -- Monday, March 24, and Tuesday, March 25, according to Rick Neal, school superintendent. If any more days are missed this week, they will be added to the end of the school year.
"We're now two days into spring break. If we get the 1-3 inches (of snow) today that's predicted, we'll be going into June," Neal said. "It looks bad.
"If we apply for a waiver after 10 days, we'll have to lose spring break," Neal said, referring to the State Department of Education allowance for a waiver after 10 days are missed. He said schools must exhaust every other possibility of making up days which will include taking the last three days of spring break which was scheduled for March 24-28.
"We have to exhaust everything before a waiver kicks in," Neal said. "If we loose the rest of this week, we'll be going until June 7."
School Board officials elected to take two days out of Christmas break putting students back in school Jan. 2 and 3 to make up for lost school days during a Dec. 6-7 snow fall. As of Dec. 18, students had missed six days of school.
Pea Ridge schools were closed Monday, Feb. 3, and Tuesday, Feb. 4, because of inclement weather. Snow began Sunday morning blanketing the area with 3.8 inches of snow. Although sunshine melted snow Monday and road crews cleared many roads, sleet and snow began falling before dawn Tuesday depositing an inch of new snow by 9 a.m. With melting from Monday, then new snow deposited there was 3.9 inches on the ground at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The weather forecast calls for snow on Thursday and Saturday. Temperatures Wednesday are not predicted to rise above 22 degrees with a Wednesday night low temperature of 3 degrees.
General News on 02/05/2014