Horry County Schools announces makeup days because of Hurricane Matthew

This story has been updated to clarify that superintendent Rick Maxey hopes the state board will waive some makeup days in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.

Horry County Schools has announced the three make up days for time lost during Hurricane Matthew.

Those days are Nov. 23, Jan. 2 and Jan. 13.

State law mandates the district make up the first three days lost from bad weather.

“After those three days are made up, it is possible for local board of trustees to waive the next three days with a majority vote of the board,” superintendent Rick Maxey said after the school board meeting Monday night.

The district has missed seven days of school, except in Green Sea Floyds, where students missed eight days.

After the first three days are made up and the school board waives the next three, the district can petition the state board of education to waive the remaining make-up days.

Maxey said he hoped that the state board would approve the remaining days.

“We're going to submit it very quickly to the state, so I'm pretty sure this is going to be it,” he said.

All the make-up days will occur in the first semester, which Maxey said was especially important to the high school students operating on a “four by four” system.

“Students start the year in August with four courses,” he said. “They conclude that semester with final exams and final grades in January. And then about the third week of January, they start the spring semester. We have an obligation to our students to prepare them for the end-of-course tests that many of them will take, so it’s very important that we get in those days.”

Maxey said that the first semester originally ended on Jan. 12, but the district has extended it to Jan. 13 to help facilitate the make-up days.

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 10:25 PM with the headline "Horry County Schools announces makeup days because of Hurricane Matthew."