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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Students in Unicoi County are hard at work but struggling after already missing 21 instructional days this school year.
Unicoi County Schools have been forced to close their doors for 17 days due to Hurricane Helene and another four because of snow.
According to Director of Schools John English, a great deal of effort is being put into trying to ensure that students do not miss out on any of the core material, despite the high number of closures.
“Our teachers have worked really hard with administration on trying to condense and get as much covered as they can,” English said. “We’ve lost a lot of instruction, and it’s definitely going to have an impact.”
In order to do that, teachers are attempting to fit five days worth of material into only three days.
“Teachers are looking really hard at their pacing, scope, sequence, and looking at those units, especially as we get into next semester,” English added. “You have to go through it a little quicker this year.”
The missed days have sparked concerns from both educators and parents.
“You just can’t miss that much time and not have concerns,” English said. “I think our teachers are concerned about it, probably students, too. But it’s like I said, it’s going to have an impact.”
Parent and Unicoi County High School teacher Chris Hatcher shared similar worries about his son, a sophomore.
“My only concern is that, is he going to be able to get everything he needs to move on?” Hatcher asked. “He makes good grades and he stays pretty well on top of things but same time, it’s still challenging to be able to compete in sports and be able to get those academics in and do everything that you need to do and be able to progress.”
Hatcher acknowledged the efforts of his fellow educators: “They are definitely having to hustle on some things to be able to get it all in because, I mean, teachers are pushed to the max anyway all the way to the end,” he said. “It is going to present a definite challenge to be able to get all the curriculum in before testing time.”
English noted that make-up days are built into the calendar and could be utilized if necessary.
“The days from the flood were forgiven and we’ve definitely appreciated that as far as making up the time,” English explained. “But if we get into a heavy snow season, when we get through that and if we’ve gone over the normal 13 days that we have built in, we will have to look at adding days in the calendar.”
One Response
Here’s a novel idea. Cancel all breaks for the rest of the year. Extend the school year if need be. We have teachers that live in our neighborhood. When it snowed they didn’t go to school. I can understand some situations were you want to keep children home. But this generation of children is behind already because of “covid”. We need God back in the classrooms. This humanist teaching of our children is destroying the very fabric of this nation. Put the Bible and the Ten Commandments back in classrooms. When you take God out of everything, satan fills that void.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.