Beaufort County students start school following Tropical Storm Debby
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
School is back for the Beaufort County School District (BCSD), but it was not without some Debby related delays at the beginning.
Students who attend BCSD public schools were supposed to start school on Wednesday, Aug. 7, nearly two weeks before they would typically have gone back to school, but due to expected weather from Tropical Storm Debby the first day of school had to be pushed back two days to Friday, Aug. 9.
Because the missed school days took place before students were issued devices, they were not able to have e-learning days and as a result they must make up the days that were missed.
“School districts have three make-up days that are put into the calendar every year and then we also are allowed to use five e-learning days, so in essence, we can make-up these two days during our make-up days and use our e-learning days to do that or we can have face-to-face days,” BCSD Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said.
While the Beaufort County Board of Education is invited to weigh in on how they make-up those days, the decision ultimately comes from the Beaufort County School District according to Rodriguez.
Rodriguez also reiterated some big changes for this year, including the cell phone ban put into place for Beaufort County students and free breakfast and lunch for all the students.
This is the first year since COVID-19 that this has been offered for all students in the county.
He also mentioned that BCSD is entering into an academic partnership with the Technical College of the Lowcountry (TCL) to cover BCSD Tides, which is a dual enrollment partnership that will allow rising ninth graders to enroll in a full-time dual enrollment cohort at TCL’s New River Campus or Beaufort Mather Campus.
Some private schools in Beaufort, such as Beaufort Academy, went back to school earlier this week.
Beaufort Academy’s first day of school was on Aug. 13, and Head of School Carol Ann Richards said that she is excited for the beginning of the school year and glad that they were able to avoid having to deal with Tropical Storm Debby.
Starting the 2024-2025 school year, Richards said that the most excited thing for their school is how much their roster has grown.
The school has added a kindergarten class and a Pre-K2 class for this school year.
Sea Islands Heritage Academy, a new charter school on St. Helena Island, opened its first year as a school on Monday.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
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