Triangle schools prepare to reopen after Hurricane Florence, but some will have delays

Both the Wake County, Durham and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school systems announced that schools will reopen Tuesday after having been closed for three days due to Hurricane Florence.

Durham school officials announced that schools will open Tuesday on a two-hour delay “to ensure that our facilities are prepared and roads are safe following today’s rainfall.” Durham reopened Monday, but issued an apology to parents when conditions worsened on the roads more than they anticipated.

Schools will also be on a two-hour delay in Chapel Hill-Carrboro but will be on a normal schedule in Wake. In Chapel Hill, school leaders had announced early Monday morning that schools would reopen on a two-hour delay before 90 minutes later saying they’d remain closed.

Schools in Wake had remained closed Monday after school officials said 60 to 80 schools across the county still had issues, including power outages, flooding and trees down on their campuses.

Johnston County schools will remain closed Tuesday. Like Durham, the Orange County school system also reopened Monday but school leaders issued an apology for the safety issues students encountered..

The news of school reopening came with word that Wake school leaders were dropping previously announced makeup days for traditional-calendar schools that included a Saturday in October and the day before Thanksgiving. Parents, students and staff complained that having classes both days would be a hardship.

Wake is converting early release days on Sept. 28 and Oct. 19 — when students would go home 2.5 hours early — into full days of classes to make up one day. Wake is also taking advantage of how it has more hours built in than required by state law to not make up one of the lost days.

The new set of makeup days for Wake County students are:

▪ Traditional calendar: Sept. 28 (full day), Oct. 19 (full day) and Oct. 31.

▪ Year-round calendar track 1: Oct. 19 (full day).

▪ Year-round calendar tracks 2 and 3: Sept. 22, Sept. 28 (full day) and Oct. 19 (full day).

▪ Year-round calendar tracks 4: Sept. 22 and Sept. 28 (full day).

▪ Modified calendar: Sept. 24 and a date to be determined.

▪ Wake Young Men’s Leadership Academy and Wake Young Women’s Leadership Academy: Sept. 21, Sept. 28 (full day) and Oct. 19 (full day).

▪ Vernon Malone Career and College Academy, Wake STEM Early College, Wake Early College of Health Sciences and North Wake College and Career Academy: Sept. 28 (full day), Oct. 4 and Oct. 19 (full day).

▪ Barwell Road and Walnut Creek elementary schools: Oct. 17 and a date to be determined.

▪ Carroll, East Garner and East Millbrook middle schools: Nov. 20 and a date to be determined.

▪ Fox Road Elementary School: Sept. 28 and a date to be determined.