Commerce's schools will be closed Friday, superintendent of schools James E. "Mac" McCoy announced this (Thursday) afternoon.
Commerce students have been on winter break since Dec. 17. They'll return Tuesday, following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday.
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The Northeast Georgia Ice Age will continue for at least another day, according to local school officials.
Both Commerce and Jackson County announced that schools will be closed for Thursday.
They may be closed Friday as well, since frigid temperatures are expected to keep some roads, parking lots and sidewalks covered with a slick layer of ice, making driving — and walking — treacherous. Main roads are fairly ice-free, but some back roads, which must be negotiated by school buses, remain icy.
"We will take a look one day at a time and see what melts and what doesn't," said Commerce superintendent of schools James E. "Mac" McCoy early Wednesday. "It doesn't look favorable for school."
So, it could be Tuesday before kids return to school. Monday, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, is already a holiday.
But somewhere, students will have to make up those lost days.
"We have a work day ion February, so that's one day students can make up," McCoy said. "We'll have to look (at the calendar) and see what we've got left. It's a mess. It's just not safe."
Jackson County superintendent of schools Shannon Adams, who lives in South Jackson, said Wednesday morning that he is still barely able to get out of his driveway with the icy road conditions.
While school officials will evaluate weather conditions one day at time, he believes classes will resume next Tuesday, Jan. 18 — a day after Monday’s holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
“Unless there’s just some significant improvements, I don’t think we’ll be back until next Tuesday,” Adams said. “It’s staying too cold and all of the back roads are too tough to travel right now — it’s dangerous.”
The Georgia Department of Education allows school systems to have four days off due to inclement weather before they are required to make them up. Adams said he hopes the DOE will give school systems some relief to make up the additional snow days.
“Everybody’s calendar has been so affected by furlough days for the last two years, that they would give us some kind of an allowance, I would hope,” he said.
