The past two weeks have been the snowiest days of this winter, leading to the use of many snow days from school for local students.

As of Thursday, the Elizabethton City Schools had been closed eight days this winter due to snow, ice or subzero temperatures, but the system has not yet used up all of the snow days built into the calender, Interim Superintendent Corey Gardenhour said.

Each school year starts with 13 days built in for schedule changes, six days for weather and seven for professional development, Gardenhour said. Four of the professional development days were used earlier in the year by staff, so that leaves three days that could be converted to snow days if needed.

“We have days built into the calendar just for situations like this,” Gardenhour said.

In fact, the school system has altered the schedule for next week to help maintain some of the days that are already built in to the schedule. Students were originally scheduled to be out of school on Monday and Tuesday, March 2 and 3, for professional development days for staff, Gardenhour said. Now, students will attend class on a regular schedule if weather allows.

The schedule change will hopefully allow the ECS to continue through the school year without extending the last day or altering spring break.

“We want to be prudent with our days,” Gardenhour said. “We are trying not to touch spring break because we know so many parents have made plans during that time.”

If ECS schools are out on Friday, it will leave the system with three built-in days before the current school calendar has to be changed.