In-person school cancelled for Thursday due to potential severe weather forecast

SHEILA A. MATHEWS :::

Due to the forecast of severe weather, the Griffin-Spalding County School System has cancelled in-person learning for Thursday, March 18. All after school activities are also cancelled.

The day will instead be considered a “catch-up day” during which they are asked to use their Chromebooks to complete any outstanding assignments or view educational videos.

Staff will report at 10:30 a.m. Students with questions may reach out to teachers after that time.

“Basically, it means the students can do work, but they do it autonomously, so the teacher doesn’t give them instruction,” said GSCSS Director of Communications and Partnerships Adam Pugh. “They have their Chromebook at home, so if they have any work they haven’t completed, they can work on that.”

Students will receive no formal instruction Thursday.

“They’re home and they’re learning by themselves with their computer,” Pugh said. “The students’ responsibility is to log in to Google Classroom and do anything they have to do there.”

School officials say this decision was prompted by National Weather Service reports, but not made lightly.

“We tried really hard. We were the last in the area, I think, to give in. Upson, Lamar, Butts, Monroe, Fayette, Pike, Henry and us, so the whole region is getting the same information from the National Weather Service – that circumstances could be unsafe for students who would be going out in the dark to catch buses with the possibility of limbs or powerlines being down,” Pugh explained. “The reports we have indicate the weather could move in from 2 a.m. and possibly persist until 11 a.m. and that gets into transportation time.”

No student will be marked absent Thursday.

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