Nicholas County Schools will be closed tomorrow Wednesday January 22, 2025 due to frigid temperatures. This is a snow day and will have to be made up at the end of the year. School staff is not to report.
Here is a sample of the 2025-2026 School Calendar, the guidelines we must follow, and a summary of the proposed calendar. Please view all 3 documents before completing the calendar survey.
https://forms.office.com/r/v8QDCvGbuj
Nicholas County Schools will be closed tomorrow Tuesday January 21, 2025 due to frigid temperatures. This is a snow day and will have to be made up at the end of they year. School staff is not to report.
On Tuesday, January 21 we will sending out our annual calendar survey for the 2025-2026 school year. Also, we will provide a copy of the proposed calendar DRAFT, an explanation of the calendar, and an explanation of what guidelines we have to follow to get our calendar approved.by the West Virginia Department of Education. The survey and calendar information will appear on our county website, and you will have the opportunity to make comments. We always see comments about starting school after Labor Day. That will not be considered unless the legislature requires it. That would push school into mid-June unless we eliminate spring break, Thanksgiving Break, and/or Christmas break. Having been in education for over 50 years, I can tell you that after Memorial Day the students and the staff are done. Educating students is very difficult these days and our employees and students are under a lot of stress and those breaks are very important. If we try and have school in June, we will see very high absenteeism with both students and staff.
One part of the calendar to look at is the spring break for next year. On the draft you will see that we would not have school on Good Friday, but we would be back in school for the following week and then have our spring break in mid-April instead of the week of Easter. That is what I suggested because hopefully the weather would be better later in the month. Traditionally, spring break follows Good Friday, and that could be an option that we adopt. if the public prefers it. I can set the spring break at any time in April. The restrictions we have to follow makes designing a calendar a challenge.
I will share the public comments and suggestions with the board of education on February 3 and February 24.
The survey will be available from January 21-28. I seek input from the community and employees.
I am aware of the situation at NCHS with the traffic light issues. I have contacted the Department of Highways, and they made arrangements for one of their traffic engineers from out of county to come and work with the high school principal to rectify the situation. It appears that this will occur early next week. I totally understand the frustration, but this is something the board of education has zero control over. However, we are trying to get this fixed. I also understand the situation seems to have worsened recently and needs addressed immediately. I will ask for assistance to help with directing traffic in the mornings and evenings until it is corrected.
Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a normal schedule today January 17, 2025.
At this time, Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a normal scheduled tomorrow, January 17 2025. This will be reevaluated at 4 am with a call with The National Weather Service and the Department of Highways.
There will be no school tomorrow in Nicholas County, January 16, 2025, due to winter weather warning. This will be the final snow packet day, snow packet #5.
Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a 3 hour delay on Wednesday January 15, 2025. Staff will report on a 2 hour delay. Breakfast is not served on a 3 hour delay schedule.
Mt. Lookout Elementary will be closed tomorrow, January 14, 2025, due to water issues. Employees do not report.
Nicholas County School will be operating on a 3 hour delay tomorrow, Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Staff is to report a 2 hour delay. Breakfast is not served on 3 hour delay days.
Just to clarify, Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a 3 hour delay tomorrow, Monday, January 13, 2025. It was incorrectly marked on the state closure map as an early out for a brief period of time earlier today. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a 3 hour delay with normal bus routes. Staff is to report on a 2 hour delay. Principals are to report on a 1 hour delay to check their school. Breakfast is not served on 3 hour delay days.
All Nicholas County extra-curricular activities are canceled for Friday January 10, and Saturday January 11, 2025 due to a winter storm warning.
Good Friday,
The Nicholas County Board of Education has created "snow routes" that hopefully will enable us to have school on days that the main highways are clear even if the secondary roads are not. This plan changes some bus routes so that students can be picked up on the main highways without the buses trying to navigate the back roads. Many times, the back roads may look ok, but snow or ice is such that there is no safe place for buses to turn around. This plan would affect most bus runs. Parents that live on the back roads would be asked to transport their children to the designated area where the bus could pick them up and take them to school. These snow routes could be used either on a regular schedule or on three-hour delays. Snow routes would be used in the evenings also on those occasions.
I am sure that there will be days where even snow routes are not possible, and on those days, we would have to close schools. Our hope is that we can have school on some snowy days and prevent us from having to make up so many days in late May or early June.
There will be hiccups along the way. It always happens when doing something new. Please be understanding of our purpose, and work with us to make this successful. This practice is implemented in neighboring counties to some extent, and we want to try it here.
We will post the adjusted runs on our website and Facebook page with a link on our website to easily look at your child's bus run and schedule. Our intention is to start using these as early as Monday, January 13.
We ask that you share this information with others and again please be patient as we would out the kinks.
Another important note.....if a parent cannot get their child to the snow route bus stop, they can send a note with their child the next day they are in school for an excused absence due to their bus not running the regular route. We have missed so much school so far, so please make every effort to get your child to school as much as possible for the rest of the year.
We are trying to get these snow routes posted on our Facebook page and county website today or this weekend at the latest.
There will be no extra-curricular activities for Nicholas County Schools today. Nicholas County Schools will be closed tomorrow January 10, 2025. This will be snow packet day #4.
Nicholas County Schools are closed Thursday January 9, 2025. This is snow packet day #3. The board meeting and expulsion hearings scheduled to begin at 10 am will still occur.
All extra-curricular actives in Nicholas County are canceled today. There will be no practices or games.
Nicholas County Schools are closed on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. This is snow day packet #2.
All extra-curricular activities for Nicholas County Schools' are canceled today. This includes games and practices.