GREENVILLE — Teachers across Greenville County are tearing up lesson plans to squeeze in a full semester's work by Dec. 20 after eight days was yanked from them by the biggest storm to hit the area in a generation.
A fuller picture of the impact of Tropical Storm Helene on public schools in the Greenville area came into focus this week as 77,000 students and more than 11,000 employees prepare to return to pre-storm routines.
Greenville County Schools — the second largest employer (after Prisma) in the Upstate — was shut down for eight school days because of widespread power and internet outages as well as unsafe debris and electrical lines strewn about the county's roads.
This heat map, shared with Greenville County school board members at a committee meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, identifies in increasingly dark colors where most storm-related roadway barriers persisted along bus routes in the county as of Oct. 4. School resumed with altered bus routes on Oct. 9.
Some of that debris remained stacked on streets and sidewalks Oct. 8 as Greenville County school board members gathered to hear a report from Superintendent Burke Royster about storm response and ongoing efforts to get the education behemoth back online this week.
"I can recall only two other similar events in my 40-plus years that resulted in the loss of this many days," Royster told trustees.
Two feet of snow shut down Upstate schools for two weeks in the 1980s, he said, and Hurricane Hugo shut down portions of York County for up to two weeks.
This storm took out power at 104 of the district's 105 buildings, spoiled all the perishable food stored to serve 85,000 meals a day, and dumped hundreds of trees and branches onto sidewalks and driveways. More than 6,000 educators had to be contacted to assess whether they could get out of their neighborhoods or had internet access (the resounding "no" to the latter is why eLearning didn't happen).
More than 300 school employees grouped in 145 teams traveled 9,000 miles of county roads twice — once on Oct. 4 and again on Oct. 7 — to assess and document whether a school bus could get through.
The district's teachers returned to schools Oct. 8 to revise lessons and prepare for mid-term projects and exams that will need to be pushed back at least a week. About half of these teachers still do not have internet service at home, so they need at least one work day in schools without kids around to catch up and change the semester's assignments to absorb eight days of lost class time.
Students will return to class Oct. 9. Their last day of classes was Sept. 26.
Missed days made up?
Royster said the school district will ask state lawmakers to forgive the eight days of lost school, noting that Greenville County's public schools already have a school day that is 30 minutes longer everyday than the state requires.
The South Carolina Board of Education issued a memo on Oct. 1 clarifying the rules: "For any waiver beyond six days of missed instruction, a joint resolution from the General Assembly is required," it said.
Makeup days are rarely well-attended and difficult to sort out logistically with graduation ceremonies already scheduled May 20 to 23 at Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Royster said.
"(Because of) the level and depth of this event, we believe it's best to seek forgiveness," he said. "I believe our legislative delegation will be very receptive to that. Many of them having not only seen firsthand the impact of this but having experienced the impact of this."
Greenville County Schools Superintendent Burke Royster delivers a report at the Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, school board meeting on the 77,000-student district's response to Tropical Storm Helene on Sept. 27. Students return to classes Oct. 9, having missed nearly two weeks of classes.
Royster said that salaried employees were unaffected, pay-wise, by the storm but that hourly workers could potentially get hit hard. Schools will be offering paid after-hour trainings to help these employees — bus drivers, janitors, cafeteria workers, clerks and classroom aides — make up missed time.
Effect on testing, exams
Another issue: standardized tests. Greenville's high schools all are on a semester system, meaning thousands of students will be taking state-mandated, end-of-course exams in December for classes such as U.S. History, English II, biology and algebra. Missing eight days of instruction could put pass rates at risk.
Jeff McCoy, the district's assistant superintendent for academics, said these classes will have to be laser-focused on information they know will be on the exams. The semester will end on Dec. 20 as scheduled, and no teacher workdays — including the one coming up on Oct. 14 — will be converted into school days.
"We have curriculum maps and pacing guides for every content area, every grade level for anything that has a standard in the state department," McCoy said. "One thing our team did last week and weekend is read just those pacing guides."
Students taking Advanced Placement classes this semester have a little more breathing room to review and prepare for their AP exams, which take place in late spring, McCoy said.
Student gain or loss?
Historically, storms of this magnitude have affected enrollment in Greenville County Schools, Royster said.
Hurricane Katrina, for example, resulted in the mass exodus of thousands of families from Louisiana, and Greenville County gained several hundred students.
Chainsaws buzz and debris covers a sidewalk along Green Avenue next to the tennis courts at Greenville High School on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. Trees and powerlines downed across the Upstate by 64 mph winds during Tropical Storm Helene on Sept. 27 kept students and staff out of schools for more than a week.
Greenville students, Royster acknowledged, might have to leave the area as families cope with destroyed or damaged homes. When students return to school on Oct. 9, school officials will be paying close attention to attendance and will start reaching out to families if kids don't show up within a couple of days, he said.
Many bus routes to schools have had to be altered, the superintendent said, and families are getting calls directly from the district if that's the case.
Whitney Hanna, the district's communication's director, said she is working with nonprofit partners through the United Way to assist families in need.
Cost of repairs
Royster said the school district does not yet have a cost estimate for repairs at its 105 buildings countywide but is bringing in retired finance director Jeff Knotts to compile that data and submit it to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Federal disaster assistance is available to individuals and organizations in all six states affected by Helene, including South Carolina.
Every time two people get together with a front-loader to move a stump, that work, and the equipment used, need to be documented, the superintendent said.
It is all eligible for reimbursement — with the school district getting a set amount of money for every task, no matter the cost.
The last time Greenville County Schools made a large claim to FEMA, it received compensation about 18 months after the storm.