From snow days to Saturday school, students head back to class

As of Saturday, Wake County public schools students have to make up a total of seven days – four from the previous snowstorm and three from this week.

“We may be running out of Saturdays. We’ll have to look at Plan B, Plan C – whatever we need to do to make up that time,” said Oak Grove Elementary School Principal Beth Jarman.

Snow days are not built into the year-round calendar. That’s because school is always in session. When one group of year-round students are out of school, another group or track uses the classrooms.

Gov. Pat McCrory will meet with the State Board of Education next week to see if they can get around a state law that requires students receive either 180 days or 1,025 hours of instruction each year.

“I’m talking to my own chief legal counsel to see what authority I, as governor, have to allow more flexibilities in those counties that have been impacted by so many days off,” McCrory said.

The Wake County school board will meet next week to work out more dates if needed. Durham County schools haven't yet decided when their makeup days will be.

For now, it's school on Saturday for many Wake County students. But not everyone is complaining.

“I actually like to go to school, so I was excited,” said Oak Grove second-grader Sam Majmundar. “I wasn’t excited that it was only like a quarter of a real day, so it just struck me that I wanted to have a whole day.”