Hey, students — and parents — your Thanksgiving break just got shorter. You can blame Irma

Faced with finding a solution to make up four of six lost days of school due to Hurricane Irma, members of the School District of Manatee County had to think outside of the box.

The solution, approved unanimously by the Manatee County School Board on Tuesday, was to cancel “early out” on two days and make them full school days, use two scheduled hurricane days during the Thanksgiving holiday week and add 10 minutes to several other days.

Manatee students now will attend a full day of school on “early release” days October 4 and December 6, according to Superintendent Diana Greene.

Further, the first two days of Thanksgiving week, November 20-21, which were on the schedule as possible hurricane make-up days, will now be used as such, becoming full school days, Greene announced.

The revised Thanksgiving break will now be shortened to five days, November 22-26.

Finally, the district is adding 10 minutes to the school day from October 2 through December 20, Greene said.

“Every grade, every school, there will be 10 more minutes added to the normal day,” said school board member Charlie Kennedy. “That’s an additional 530 minutes, which is about a day and a half of school.”

“All of that gets us just slightly over four make-up days,” Kennedy added.

Greene said the district considered making Veteran’s Day on November 10 a school day, but it is noted as a day off in the teacher’s union contract and would have required negotiations.

“I think it’s good,” Kennedy added of the plan. “I’ve talked to a lot of people over the past two weeks who have been waiting for an answer and have shared ideas, and while we can’t make everyone happy with any calendar decision, I think the idea the superintendent and her staff came up with will satisfy the most people.”

“Extending the school day is always a great move,” said school board member Gina Messenger.

In other news, Greene invited fathers to get free breakfast Wednesday in any school. It’s part of, “Dads, Take Your Child to School Day.”

But there’s a catch.

“Dads, please don’t show up without your child,” Greene joked.

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 9:10 AM with the headline "Hey, students — and parents — your Thanksgiving break just got shorter. You can blame Irma."