Silfab Solar chemical spills cause make-up day problems for Fort Mill school

Fort Mill students who missed school due to chemical releases at Silfab Solar could have to make up days on a Saturday, Memorial Day, graduation day or even after the school year ends.

In a conversation that seemed befitting of an April 1 school board meeting, officials weren’t joking Wednesday with the unusual possibilities. State rules require the Fort Mill School District to complete the 180-day school year for Flint Hill Elementary School students. The district just isn’t sure how to go about it yet.

The decision involves everything from an acid leak to COVID changes to disagreement with the state on what constitutes a makeup day. It could, in time, even impact snow days.

Why are Fort Mill students making up days?

The school district closed Flint Hill Elementary on March 5 due to reports of a hydrofluoric acid leak at nearby Silfab Solar.

York County issued a public notification about the leak a little after 8 a.m. that day, when many Flint Hill students were already at school. Students were bussed to Pleasant Knoll Middle School where their parents scrambled to pick them up.

That acid leak, later determined to have begun in February, was the second chemical incident at Silfab within a week. On March 3, potassium hydroxide solution spilled at the industrial site. Initially reported by Silfab at about 1,500 gallons, the company later revised that amount to about 300 gallons.

After rerouting students and contacting parents to pick them up on March 5, the district opted to close Flint Hill again on March 6 as local, state and federal officials pressed Silfab for details on the chemical incidents.

No other Fort Mill district schools closed due to issues at Silfab.

Why are summer or weekend make-up days possible in SC?

State law allows school districts to forgive days, or simply not require school, under certain conditions.

If a district has already used three makeup days, or if it doesn’t have any more makeup days left in the school year, the school board can forgive up to three days. The state legislature could then forgive up to three more days.

This year’s school calendar in Fort Mill has seven days marked as potential weather makeup days. The only ones left are Memorial Day and June 1. They’re on either side of the May 29 graduation day, intended to be the last day of school across the district.

Those dates are remnants from an old way of setting calendars — before the COVID pandemic made virtual school a widespread possibility — to create options for high school students who may need late makeup days to graduate.

“Those were originally put on the calendar, many years ago, under the old system really as a last-ditch effort,” Burke said. “They were never really designed to be used in this type of manner.”

Fort Mill schools have used four of their allotted five eLearning, or virtual school, days since August. Schools also closed March 16 due to severe weather, and were made up using eLearning four days later.

District officials believed those days put them beyond the three-day requirement, meaning the school board could forgive the two days Flint Hill students missed.

The state Education Department has a different interpretation, Burke said. He was told by state officials that virtual school held on the same day schools are closed doesn’t count toward the three makeup days. So, per state rules, the district has only used one.

The school board, then, couldn’t forgive days since they have the option to make up two more and there are two options still on the calendar—Memorial Day and June 1.

What are the options for Flint Hill students?

The school board opted not to make a decision Wednesday. They’ll take a couple of weeks to meet with attorneys and potentially state education officials first. So far, there are a few options.

Flint Hill students could have in-person or virtual makeup days on Memorial Day and June 1.

It’s unclear how that last day in particular would work, with the rest of the district having already completed its school year. The makeup options only apply to Flint Hill Elementary.

Another option is to use the final eLearning day for Flint Hill students only, on April 25. That’s a Saturday.

Still another option involves graduation day. It’s set as a half day for students across the district. The board could convert that to a full day for Flint Hill Elementary only, which would make it count as one of the two makeup days.

Only one of the two makeup days could be virtual.

All those options, or combinations of them, come with questions. Making a half day a full day changes bus routes, or could complicate plans if families have an elementary school student and a graduating senior.

Because of how unusual any of the options would be, board members aren’t sure many parents will choose to send their students to school for the extra two days anyway.

“We don’t always have perfect attendance from all of our students,” said board Chairwoman Kristy Spears.

Return of the snow day in Fort Mill?

The scheduling predicament caused by chemicals could oddly impact a beloved school tradition threatened by COVID—the snow day.

The rise of virtual learning brought concern five years ago for snow days, when weather cancels school and allows children to play outside. Board members in Fort Mill wondered if they’d still happen, with the district’s new ability to make up school virtually.

“I’ve heard some conversation about, does that mean kids never get a snow day again?” Spears said during an early 2021 board meeting.

This winter brought an end to a record-breaking snow drought in the Rock Hill region, but the late January snowfall happened on a weekend.

If the state Education Department doesn’t count eLearning days used on the same day school would be canceled toward its makeup days, the district could lean into the old-fashioned model with a virtual twist.

“It sounds like we need to actually use the makeup days, and not do the eLearning on the day that they missed,” said Superintendent Grey Young.

That model, similar to the March 16 weather day that was made up later that week, could mean fewer online school days during bad weather. “It makes a snow day a true snow day,” Young said.