School year set to begin Thursday, August 9

Posted August 1, 2018 at 8:56 am

Summer is going by fast and that means another school year is about to begin for hundreds of students in Clinton County.

The first class day for students in the Clinton County School District is slated for next Thursday, August 9. However, staff and administrators, who have been working throughout the summer to prepare for the 2018-19 school term, with get started on Monday of next week with professional training days.

According to Director of Pupil Personnel Julie York, the 2018-19 school calendar basically mirrors calendars in years past, with again, 10 Non-Traditional (or cyber school) days being available to use in case of increment weather and/or illness during school months.

The first day off for students after the start of the year will be Monday and Tuesday, September 3 and 4 for the Labor Day holiday and a teacher work day, respectively.

The fall break will again coincide with the Foothills Festival weekend, as the break will be held the week of October 15-19, but students will not have to return to class until October 23 due to October 22 being another work day for staff only.

Students will get another three-day break, Wednesday through Friday, November 21-23 for Thanksgiving and the Christmas break will follow in December, from Thursday, December 20 through Wednesday, January 2. Students will return to class after the mid-term break on January 3, 2019.

Spring break will be the first full week of April and there will be some individual professional and/or work days next spring, as well as some holidays, which will see classes dismissed for single days prior to the end of the school year.

Barring no missed days, which usually does not occur, the final day for students would be May 15 and graduation on May 17. However, there are 15 makeup days added into the calendar.

There are a total of 170 instructional days and the following is a listing of opening/closing times for each school day: Clinton County Middle School, open at 7:50 a.m. and close at 2:50 p.m.; Clinton County High School, open at 7:59 a.m. and close at 3 p.m.; Albany Elementary, open at 8 a.m., close at 3:10 p.m. and Early Childhood Center, open at 8:10 a.m. and close at 3:10 p.m.

Each school will have 385 instructional minutes per day and 35 non-instructional minutes per day.

York also noted in stressing the importance of school attendance, that there is a couple of changes in that attendance policy. One being the number of parent excuse days cut from 10 to six, more in line with the number of most other school districts.

York also said the amount of doctor visits last year was “getting out of hand,” and has made a change in the amount of doctor statements that will be accepted for absentees.

After 10 regular doctor notes for the same students, doctors will be asked–without breaking any HIPPA provisions–to sign a Medical Excuse Form showing the exact cause of a student’s illness and if a student misses five or more consecutive days, they would be asked to file a Home/Hospital application.

Although attendance was down overall last year, compared to the 2016-17 school year, York, noted that there were various underlying reasons, including a statewide flu epidemic and some across the county and local school safety (shooting or threat issues) that caused parents to keep kids home from school during certain situations.

Despite the problems, she did say that Clinton County held its own insofar as attendance compared to many other school districts in the state.

The DPP also noted the district administrators were also working on other intervention type programs that will hopefully help increase student attendance rates during the coming year.

There will be only a few staff changes, but some major ones at Clinton County High School that York believes will be a positive thing. She noted CCHS has two new guidance counselors, Lucas Dalton for grades 9 and 10 and Luke Moons for grades 11 and 12, and Ken Dearborn has been hired as assistant principal at the school.

Also, Cumberland Family Medical will be providing a mental health provider, Sarah Wilson Browning, to provide services to both the middle school and high school this year, which York believes will be another valuable asset.

York said already the three new employees at CCHS had been doing a fantastic job, along with all the other staff and administrators, in getting ready for the new school year.

“I’m really looking forward to it (2018-19 school year),” York concluded.