BY KARISSA MILLER

Iredell-Statesville Schools students will not have to make up any time for the nearly two weeks schools were closed due to the ice and snow storms, officials said.

Superintendent Jeff James said Friday that the district has used up its allotment of five remote days and has two additional days left for inclement weather.

“We have applied for a state waiver, but the only thing the waiver would help us do is give us some additional remote (virtual) days if we happen to be out of school again,” James explained.

In North Carolina, school districts must provide at least 1,025 instructional hours each year. I-SS has avoided make-up days by using “banked hours” or extra time built into the calendar, along with remote learning days.

How will I-SS handle any additional snow days?

If the district does have to make up any school because it snows again, the district will not shorten Easter break, James said.

“So many families make plans months in advance to go out of town or on vacation. I’m not touching Easter break. All that would do is create a lot of anxiety across the district,” the superintendent said.

“Right now, as it stands, we have two days left. If we have to miss (more than two days), we will have to add on at the end of the school year,” he added.

Student Absences

According to James, if students are on campus even with a delayed start, as long as they are there half the day, they are counted present.

On Friday, when schools opened on a two-hour delay, some roads in the county were “still solid sheets of ice” and around 40 roads had not been cleared, he said.

James said he told principals that if a parent truly had no way to get their child to school Friday and they depended on a bus — students would not receive an “unexcused absence.”

“An absence is an absence. The state looks at what is excused versus unexcused,” James said.

“If there’s a kid with perfect attendance and all of this has caused a kid to be absent, we will make sure that child is not penalized,” James said.