Fort Mill schools have a new start date. Here’s when students will return in August.
Fort Mill students will head back to school a week earlier this August.
The Fort Mill school board adopted a new calendar late Wednesday that starts school Aug. 10. It comes after state legislators approved an addition of five days for K-8 students. Teachers now will head back Aug. 3, also a week earlier than scheduled.
Superintendent Chuck Epps said he understands there may be vacations or family events impacted.
“We will work with those people,” Epps said. “I know this is a week ahead.”
The earlier start up through middle school could operate similar to how kindergarten has in recent years, Epps said. The kindergarten model has students come in for one of the first four days based on alphabetical order before the full classes start on Friday. Students would then spend their first day in small groups where teachers could assess them after months of lost in-person instruction due to COVID-19.
The staggered start model isn’t a certainty until final fall plans are made. Epps said the five days won’t be used as replacement for time lost.
“It’s not going to be catching up the kids for missing three months of school,” he said.
The early start also allows teachers to review still-to-be-determined protocols for how in-person school will operate.
The new calendar has high school students at five fewer days than younger students.
Classes will finish before Memorial Day next year. May 21 is the last day for high school, May 28 for lower grades. Winter break is Dec. 21, 2020 through Jan. 4, 2021 with the first and last day as teacher workdays. Spring break is April 5-9, 2021. There are 21 scheduled days off for both students and teachers.
The school board approved its initial 2020-21 calendar Feb. 18. A month before coronavirus social distancing and an executive order from Gov. Henry McMaster shut down schools beginning March 16. Further orders would extend school closures through the end of the school year.
The calendar decision comes not just in relation to reopening, but as the district adds schools for the coming year. Kings Town and River Trail elementary schools will grow the district to 19 schools.
Kings Town opens with the rest of Fort Mill schools this fall. Due to construction delays, River Trail will open mid-year.
In Lancaster County
Fort Mill is far from the only area district to face start date questions due to coronavirus.
The Lancaster County School District, which includes the high-growth Indian Land area, met June 23 to discuss the calendar its board approved pre-social distancing. The board approved a calendar it could use with an Aug. 10 start date, a week earlier than the calendar approved in January.
Michelle Craig, district spokesperson, said late last week the district isn’t yet sure which calendar will prove to be the final one.
“We’re waiting on the state department and legislators to tell us what’s going to happen,” she said. “We went ahead and got (the earlier calendar) approved if we need it.”
The Lancaster County board next meets July 21. Until then, the district advises parents to rely on the information from January with the later start.
”That’s the one that we’re telling people that we’re going by until we hear differently,” Craig said.
Other districts
The Clover School District recently finalized a draft school reopening plan for the fall, with a final plan expected for release to parents on July 13.
The York School District has a video on its website noting school could start a week earlier than was approved prior to the pandemic.
On June 22, state education superintendent Molly Spearman and other officials held a press conference to outline final recommendations from the AccelerateED Task Force on the 2020-21 school year. The task force recommended districts revisit their calendars and make adjustments based on local health conditions.
Spearman talked of plans to resume in-person instruction this fall but also warned that if positive tests for the virus continued to soar it may not happen.
State officials gave school districts a recommendation to advise parents of changes to the school calendar at least 20 days before school starts.
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 6:47 PM.
