By DAVID VITRANO

News Editor

LULING—Public school students in St. Charles Parish will have two fewer days of Thanksgiving holidays this year.

This is according to an item, passed at the last school board meeting, to make up for time lost to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

St. Charles Superintendent Rodney Lafon said he recognized the problems of eliminating holidays but added, “We’re going to make it work and make sure it’s instructional time.”

St. John Parish considered a similar option but decided to lengthen school days for a specified period instead.

In addition to the added school days on Nov. 24 and 25, high school students in St. Charles will no longer have late take in days on Oct. 15 and Nov. 19. Also, one parent conference-associated early dismissal in the fall semester will be adjusted.

The parish’s middle schoolers will follow the same schedule as the high school students for the fall semester but will have additional make up time in the spring.

They will no longer have late take in days on Jan. 7 and 21 and also will have one of their spring semester parent conference early dismissals adjusted.

The school system started the year with a surplus of instructional minutes but lost seven days because of the hurricanes.

At the same meeting, the board decided to accept for a first reading an alteration of their policy on Workers’ Compensation.

A revision to the policy would allow the district to be in strict compliance with Louisiana law, which states that a worker shall not be paid for the first seven days of work missed because of a work-related injury. The district currently pays its employees for this time.

The revision, however, does allow for compensation for the first seven days in the event that the employee is out for six weeks or longer.

Additionally, the board agreed to renew its liability insurance policy with the Louisiana Public Schools Risk Management Agency. The renewal included no increase in premiums.